TP FIELDEN is the creator of the Miss Dimont murder mysteries, set in the 1950s on the English Riviera. Resort To Murder joins The Riviera Express as the first two in the series.
Christopher Wilson (TP Fielden)
My name isn't TP Fielden - I write biography under my real name Christopher Wilson, and needed to find a new character to write my novels for me! I have a bunch of zany ancestors and so picked out a couple of them to create my pen-name - 'TP' was my great-grandfather, who made the family fortune. 'Fielden' was my grandfather - who spent it.
Every writer has a cat - Mine's called Cato and is the inspiration for Mulligatawny, the tabby who helps my heroine Miss Dimont solve the murders which occur worryingly often in Temple Regis, the prettiest resort in the whole of Devon.
Start writing today! - Everyone has a book in them, it's only a matter of persevering. To get started all you have to do is write something - anything - then look at it the next day and surprise yourself with how good you can be. A poem, a short story, a description of where you live, some memories from your childhood - that's how I started, and that's how every writer starts. And never be put off by a blank sheet of paper - it'll soon fill itself with a little help from you!
I'm a Jack of all trades - In my time I've been a local newspaper reporter, a gossip columnist, diplomatic correspondent, arts reviewer - I've even written obituaries. Variety is the spice of life when you're a writer, and it's always exciting to take on a new challenge.
I once poured Prince Philip a gin and tonic - he said I'd drowned the gin.
I live in Devon - once it was London, but the sea and the sand and the moors and the lovely warm Devon people all contributed to inspiring the Miss Dimont mysteries. So one day I drove down here, and never went back.
Remember Wizadora? - my wife Carolyne Cullum created the ITV children's series which ran for a long, long time in the Nineties. She also wrote many of the scripts, inventing wonderful characters like Hangle, Phoebe Telephone and Very Old Fish.
Miss Dimont is based on a real-life person, also called Judy. She always had a smile on her face, and was one of the best reporters on local newspapers I ever came across. I sent her an advance copy of The Riviera Express and worried for a week that she might hate it - then came her email, and all was well: she loved it!
Never forget your public library - it's a lovely luxury to own books, but never forget you can borrow them (almost) free from the library. In the current economic climate we must use them - or lose them.
My desert island luxury - a pair of cashmere socks. They hug your toes.
If I could have my time again I wouldn't change a thing - a writer's life is exciting and no two days are ever the same. It has its anxieties and uncertainties, but then, what job doesn't?
Resort To Murder by TP Fielden is published in paperback by HQ Books.