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The Author

 

Nigel Cooper was born in England, UK. He grew up in the Lake District and later moved to London.

Nigel wouldn’t really want to work for any company that would employ him, hence he has been self-employed most of his working life as a photographer, concert pianist, private investigator, video producer, magazine founder/editor and journalist.

During his early years Nigel had several inconsequential jobs including working as a cook, bartender, salesperson, stretch limousine driver, chauffeur and a double-decker bus driver for London Transport.

While in the employment of one particular company he actually got fired for being too efficient at his job doing piecework at a belt factory in North London. It upset the other factory workers that he was earning three times more than them due to his efficient technique. The boss (sad as it made him) had to let Nigel go due to tension, unrest and growing jealousy and hatred towards him on the factory floor.

Of the menial jobs where Nigel was employed they never lasted long – at least his boredom threshold didn’t. Nine months was his personal record, but most lasted just a few months.

His shortest term of employment lasted just three hours. This was his first ever job as an apprentice barber in North London. Three hours of sweeping up hair, refilling shampoo bottles and cleaning sinks was all he could take – he left at lunchtime.

Later, Nigel got serious and although photography had always been a hobby during is teenage years after spending a year working for The Flash Centre in London when he was 21 he decided to study the subject properly. He went on to run a photographic studio in London specialising in commercial, advertising, fashion, portraiture and editorial photography. 

He also studied screenwriting in London where he learned the art and craft of creative writing for film and television. In 1999 he set up his own video production company specialising in corporate video. He also undertook television work as a freelance lighting cameraman. In 2004 he founded a specialist video production magazine. Although hugely successful he sold the magazine in November 2011 in order to focus on writing fiction.

Being a creative type Nigel studied classical piano. After doing the grades (both practical and theoretical) with the ABRSM he attained a Performer’s Certificate with Trinity College, London. He won the North London Music Festival two years running performing Bach, Chopin and Rachmaninoff. Nigel also achieved grade 8 Drums with distinction with Trinity College and has previously been a member of two bands. He was the bassist in a band called Beyond Therapy and the drummer in a band called Chalotte’s Web.

In 2001 Nigel completed a 1-year intensive study course attaining a diploma in Private Investigation. For a short while he worked as a freelance private investigator working with two local solicitor firms in Cambridgeshire. Today, this knowledge and experience comes in handy for the crime writing side of his fiction.

Nigel has had many years' experience in journalism as a writer of technical articles, tutorials, stories, reviews, news and photojournalism, not only for his own magazine but also for many other well-known publications, magazines and newspapers. It was during these years as a writer, journalist and magazine editor that he found his 'voice', which made his transition to becoming a novelist an easy one.

In 2011 Nigel had an overwhelming desire to write fiction so he set about researching his debut novel in the dark romance vampire genre. This desire had been smouldering inside him for a few years. Having seen various classic vampire movies in the past he decided to write a vampire story that he himself would want to read – something organic and tangible. After extensive research and planning Nigel completed his debut novel ‘Email From A Vampire’ which was self-published in July 2012.

After more research and writing during 2013 he completed his second novel, Sophia – a psychological thriller that Nigel says is heavily autobiographical due to the period of depression and self-destruction that he was going through at the time. Sophia was published in January 2014.

In 2014 (after a friend suggested it) Nigel also wrote his own harrowing and disturbing autobiographical childhood memoir entitled ‘Boy’ – a compelling, gripping, and powerfully written true story. Boy was published in August 2015 by Ebury, Penguin Random House, and has come in for much praise. Boy has since been republished as a 2nd edition after Nigel bought the rights to the book back from Penguin Random House. He was never happy with the original edit of Boy and the sections that Ebury removed or changed. He has since re-written Boy and himself taken a new photograph for the cover. The 2nd edition of Boy was published in April 2024.

He has also written a supernatural thriller entitled ’S.U.N.D.S’, a gripping crime thriller entitled ‘The Sound Of Crying’, a romantic comedy ‘Digital Romance Disorder’, the pacy psychological thriller ‘The Killing of Emily Chandler’ and the somewhat unorthodox love story, ‘The 95,000 Word Suicide Note’.

Nigel writes across a diverse range of genres including: contemporary fiction, psychological thrillers, crime and supernatural and anything else that he feels passionate about.

Today, as well as writing, Nigel is a professional photographer that does both location and studio shoots. He also loves to play Beethoven and Bach on his piano and he also composes rock and pop music in his small home recording studio where he favours heavy industrial synthesiser music.

Nigel lives and writes in Cambridgeshire, UK.

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