Mike Craven is a brilliant author who has written many wonderful and tense novels; his Poe and Tilly series is especially popular. He is an award-winning author and is one of the most interesting guys out there.
Mike Craven / Picture Credit: Gary Barton
Mike lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne, and their springer spaniel. The fourth book in Mike’s insanely-popular Poe and Tilly series, Dead Ground, is out June 3rd; we can’t wait to get out hands on it!
For now, here are seven facts you may not know about Mike, plus three bonus ones!
Facts about Mike Craven
- Mike used to go to school with Newcastle and England centre forward Alan Shearer. At one point he even kept him out of the school football team.
- In 2004 doctors told Mike he was going to die. Spoiler alert: he didn’t!
- Mike once held a Dangerous Wild Animals licence as one of his pets was a Dwarf Caiman (a type of crocodile).
- Mike used to be a professional snake breeder.
- Every one of Mike’s books in the Poe and Tilly series has been longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for crime novel of the year. In 2019, The Puppet Show won the Gold Dagger.
- Washington Poe’s name came about when his wife misheard him say Washington Post. He had to rewrite large sections of The Puppet Show to make this work, including changing how Tilly was. Luckily it all worked out!
- Mike’s favourite book is Night Watch by Terry Pratchett and he reads it, along with all the other books in the guards series, at least once a year.
Bonus facts
- The Poe and Tilly series has now been translated into 21 languages, including Japan (where he was a number 1 best seller), Denmark, Spain and Russia.
- You can now walk in the footsteps of Washington Poe. ATO-Tours, a company in London, will take you all over Cumbria, visiting some of the iconic scenes from the books.
- Mike joined the army by accident. He went to the recruiting office with his friend who wanted to join the infantry. His friend didn’t join in the end, but Mike did! He stayed in the army for twelve years, before leaving to become a probation officer.
Dead Ground, the fourth novel in the Poe and Tilly series, follows the unlikely pair once again.
Poe is in court, fighting to not be evicted from his beloved and isolated croft, when he is summoned to a backstreat brothel in Carlisle, where a man has been beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Poe and Tilly must work together once again to uncover what happened in that alley; no doubt all will not be what it seems...
Dead Ground will be available fron June 3rd, 2021!
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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