In January of 2008, I won £115,000 after a long legal battle against a polluting industry in the small town of Totnes, Devon, where I lived. The money was not the only bright side to the experience; because of it, I began work on Bleedout, partly to distract myself from the injustice, partly to vent the explosive anger that legal cases often cause in people and partly because thrillers are just plain fun to write.

Much to my surprise, stories about the settlement appeared all over the world.

But some people sneer when a writer changes genres. God knows what mad quest for a headline led reporters to insist that I felt my legal problems had forced me “dumb” myself down into thriller writing. It’s simply not true. The idea never crossed my mind. But once one reporter had said it, several others ran with it. They didn’t bother to check it out.

The real story appeared widely too. Here’s a selection:

At least you can kill people in a book - The Guardian