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Douglas Watkinson has written literally hundreds of televisions scripts, everything from Z Cars to Midsomer Murders, which he helped to establish. The latter, under the title Inspector Barnaby, has been seen by a billion people. All he’s asking is that one percent of them read Haggard Hawk and Easy Prey...
Douglas was born into an army family and educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s. From there, though indirectly, he went to East 15 Acting School where his first plays were performed. On graduating he bombarded television companies with plays and eventually one was produced by Scottish Television. It was a thirty minute two-hander called Click.
You can find more about his television work on his website (www.douglaswatkinson.com) including when and where to see repeats of it, at least in the UK.
His novels are a recent addition to his CV, and he first wrote Haggard Hawk under the pen name of Marcus Barr, an old family name. He says, “The problem is, I never really came to terms with being Marcus ... so I went back to using my real name. Indepenpress were kind enough to republish Haggard Hawk to take account of it.”
His novels feature the hard-bitten, soft-centred ex copper Nathan Hawk who was ‘requested to retire’, as the British so delicately put it. It was the result of his over-active mouth and fiery temper leading him to strike a fellow officer. That aside, there remain four things which bother him and, in a case of art reflecting life, they are his grown up children, dispersed all over the world.
The next Hawk novel is called Scattered Remains and will be available in October. The fourth book, Evil Turn, will be finished by Christmas.
Douglas lives in a thatched house in the Buckinghamshire countryside with his wife and two German Shepherds. He works in a shed in the garden. It’s a little more comfortable than the one he started out with ... but it’s still a shed.
Third case for Nathan Hawk, the whisky-loving ex-copper with an ever-ready temper and a gloomy view of humanity. The curiosity of his son and the murderous greed of a ruthless politician force Hawk to not only investigate a disturbing missing person's case but defend the thing he loves the most, his family. The author has penned many a TV show including Midsomer Murders and Z-Cars and it shows in the clever plot and cracking pace.
2nd in the highly readable Nathan Hawk series. The retired police officer and reluctant private investigator Nathan Hawk is asked to find a girl who has been missing for three months. After turning down the case, as he is sure the girl is dead, his own daughter goes missing which gives him a new perspective; but his investigations open a can of worms and lots of reasons for revenge. With his grown-up children and relatively happy home life Nathan Hawk is a refreshing change from the moody, emotionally dysfunctional characters that have sprung up of late. Well worth a read.
First in a series of refreshingly different crime fiction featuring a 50 something retired police officer, Nathan Hawk, whose attempts to adjust to a new pace of life are thrown off course when he comes across a brutal murder.The author is a ex TV script writer (Midsomer Murders to Z-Cars) and it shows in the clever plot and cracking pace.
