Mike Ripley was born in 1952 and is the British author of the award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comedy thrillers as well as a critic and archaeologist.

Life and work

Ripley is the author of the ''Angel'' series of comedy thrillers set mainly in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and London's East End. He won the

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...

'Last Laugh Award' for best humorous crime novel for 'Angel Touch' in 1989 and 'Angels In Arms' in 1991. He was also a scriptwriter for the fifth series of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy-drama ''

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

'' (1986–94) starring

Ian McShane Ian David McShane (born 29 September 1942) is an English actor. His television performances include the title role in the BBC series ''Lovejoy'' (1986–1994), Al Swearengen in '' Deadwood'' (2004–2006) and its 2019 film continuation, and M ...

, and served as ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

s crime fiction critic for ten years. In 2003 at the age of fifty he suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

; his 2006 book, ''Surviving a Stroke'', is his autobiographical account of his recovery. After twenty years of working in London he moved to East Anglia and became an archaeologist. In the words of his publisher, "he was thus one of the few crime writers who regularly turned up real bodies". He currently writes the "Getting Away With Murder" column for the online publication ''Shots''. The inspiration for the column (he once claimed) came after a night of drinking gin with

Auberon Waugh Auberon Alexander Waugh ( ; 17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was a British journalist and novelist, and eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname "Bron". After a traditional classical education at Downsid ...

and

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

in London. He is the series editor at Ostara Publishing, which specialises in reprinting classic mysteries and thrillers, and was co-editor of the three ''Fresh Blood'' anthologies promoting new British crime writing. He also lectures on crime writing at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 2007 he was made a Patron of the Essex Book Festival and ran his Creative Crime Writing course at the Lavenham Literary Festivals in 2009 and 2013. Working with the Margery Allingham Society he has completed the Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Allingham's widower, Philip Youngman Carter in 1969. ''Mr. Campion's Farewell'' was published in April 2014. A second Campion "continuation" novel followed in 2015 and a third in 2016. He has so far published 11 books in the Campion series. His non-fiction reader's history ''Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang'', a survey of the boom in British thrillers 1953-1975 was published in May 2017 and won the H.R.F.Keating Award for non-fiction at ''Crimefest'' 2018.

Continuing Margery Allingham's Campion novels

Following the death of the crime writer

Margery Allingham Margery Louise Allingham (20 May 1904 – 30 June 1966) was an English novelist from the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", and considered one of its four " Queens of Crime", alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. All ...

in 1966, her husband Philip Youngman Carter completed her novel '' Cargo of Eagles'' (published 1968), and two further Campion books: ''Mr. Campion's Farthing'' and ''Mr. Campion's Falcon''. Upon Carter's death in 1969, he too left an unfinished manuscript for a Campion novel. Carter's fragment of manuscript, which contained revisions and minor corrections but no plot outline, character synopsis or plan, was bequeathed to Margery Allingham's sister Joyce; and upon her death in 2001, the manuscript was left to officials of the Margery Allingham Society. It was not until 2012 that Ripley, with the approval and agreement of the Margery Allingham Society, took up the challenge of completing Carter's manuscript, which became ''Mr. Campion's Farewell''. The novel was published in March 2014 by

Severn House Publishers Severn House Publishers is an independent publisher of fiction in hardcover and ebooks. Severn House specialises in publishing mid-list authors in both the UK and the USA. Established in 1974, Severn House began republishing out-of-print titles ...

. Since then, Ripley has published additional novels in which Campion continues to age in place. His twelfth book in the series, 'Mr Campion's Christmas', was published in November 2024 and won the Last Laugh Award at Crimefest in 2025.

Bibliography

Novels

Fitzroy Maclean Angel series

*''Just Another Angel'' (1988) *''Angel Touch'' (1989) *''Angel Hunt'' (1990) *''Angels in Arms'' (1991) *''Angel City'' (1994) *''Angel Confidential'' (1995) *''Family Of Angels (1996)'' *''That Angel Look'' (1997) *''Bootlegged Angel'' (1999) *''Lights, Camera, Angel'' (2001) *''Angel Underground'' (2002) *''Angel on the Inside'' (2003) *''Angel In The House'' (2005) *''Angel's Share'' (2006) *''Angels Unaware'' (2008) *''Angels and Others'' (short stories, 2015)

Mr. Campion Novels

*''Mr. Campion's Farewell'' (after P. Youngman Carter) (2014) * ''Mr. Campion's Fox'' (2015) * ''Mr. Campion's Fault'' (2016) * ''Mr. Campion's Abdication'' (2017) * ''Mr. Campion's War'' (2018) * ''Mr. Campion's Visit'' (2019) * ''Mr. Campion's Seance'' (2020) * ''Mr. Campion's Coven'' (2021) * ''Mr. Mapion's Wings'' (2021) * ''Mr. Campion's Mosaic'' (2022) * ''Mr. Campion's Memory'' (2023) * ''Mr. Campion's Christmas'' (2024)

Non-series Novels

*''Double Take'' (2002) *''Boudica and the Lost Roman'' (2005) *''The Legend of Hereward the Wake'' (2007) * ''Buried Above Ground'' (2025)

Non Fiction

*''Surviving a Stroke'' (2006) * ''Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: the boom in British thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed'' (2017)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ripley, Mike 1952 births Living people British thriller writers British television writers Place of birth missing (living people)