About

Mark's parents dropped the 'Jonathan' in favour of Mark almost immediately and he once forgot how to spell his Christian name several years ago - easily done. He is originally from the former Welsh mining town of Blaenavon, now a famous UNESCO World Heritage Site attraction, and the scene of his latest thriller ‘Rare Earth’.
Although worked as an aeronautical design engineer, he spent most of his career travelling the world masquerading as a key account salesman.
He won his first national award for writing a fictional story as an eight-year-old - The Brooke Bond award. After leaving school he didn’t write another fictional story for decades. Success arrived soon after when his short story ‘Taste the Darkness’ won the Henshaw International fiction prize in 2020. With a runner up in Frances Copping Memorial Prize for Fiction. His anthology ‘Valley Noir Valley Blanc’ includes his award-winning stories.
His debut novel ‘The Lucidity Programme’ received excellent reviews and briefly made it to #33 in its Amazon category alongside the likes of Dean Koontz and Paulo Coelho!
To relax, he’s a dedicated yogi, ridden Tour de France alpine cycling climbs, hiked the Camino across Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, snowboarded Mont Blanc’s Vallée Blanche and once outran a herd of rampaging cows across his local Welsh mountains.
He is secretary of the Hay Writers Circle and performed at the Hay Literature Festival in 2022 – he treasures his ‘paper rose’ performance accolade.
Mark lives in Wales with similar views to some of the characters in his valley noir books and is studying for his MA in Creative Writing at Cardiff University.