DAVID DOWNING
I grew up in the London suburb of Harrow, then spent four years at Sussex University doing a BA in Afro-Asian Studies and an MA in International Relations. Between 1973 and 1976 I worked for one rock magazine and freelanced for several others. In 1974 I travelled overland to India via Iran and Afghanistan.
Between 1975 and 1987 I lived in inner London and my first published book, which grew out of the rock journalism, was Future Rock in 1975. Since then I have worked as a freelance book writer. In this period the books mostly alternated between modern culture (rock music and movies) or political/military history, but I also wrote two works of ‘faction’ – the WW2 alternative history The Moscow Option about the forward-looking Russian Revolution 1985. I made three trips to the Soviet Union.
In 1987 my first real novel – the thriller The Red Eagles - was published in the US. Over the next six years I was involved in the creation of an environmental centre in north-east London, and undertook two lengthy trips to South and Central America. From 1993 I lived in Boston, Massachusetts with my partner Nancy, who subsequently became my wife. During five years in America I wrote umpteen SAS/SBS novels for Bloomsbury as David Monnery and a biography of Neil Young.
Since 1998 Nancy and I have lived in Guildford, UK. I wrote three football books on my return, and then spent several years writing history books for children. Since 2005 I have written four volumes of the John Russell series of espionage thrillers and a military history, Sealing Their Fate. Two more Russell books have recently been contracted to my UK and American publishers which will be the last in the series and I am also working on a new series of novels set in and around the First World War.
LATEST BOOK: LEHRTER STATION
Paris, November 1945. John Russell is walking home along the banks of the Seine on a cold and misty evening when Soviet agent Yevgeny Shchepkin falls into step alongside him. Shchepkin tells Russell that the American intelligence will soon be asking him to undertake some low grade espionage on their behalf—assessing the strains between different sections of the German Communist Party—and that Shchepkin’s own bosses in Moscow want him to accept the task and pass his findings on to them. He adds that refusal will put Russell’s livelihood and life at risk, but that once he has accepted it, he’ll find himself even further entangled in the Soviet net. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Shchepkin admits that his own survival now depends on his ability to utilize Russell. The only way out for the two of them is to make a deal with the Americans. If they can come up with something the Americans want or need badly enough, then perhaps Russell will be forgiven for handing German atomic secrets over to Moscow and Shchepkin might be offered the sort of sanctuary that also safeguards the lives of his wife and daughter in Moscow. Every decision Russell makes now is a dangerous one.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Books for adults: Lehrter Station, Soho Crime, 2012. Potsdam Station (Old Street; Soho Press, 2010/11); Sealing Their Fate: Twenty-two Days that Decided the Second World War (Simon & Schuster (UK), Da Capo (US), 2009), Stettin Station (Old Street; Soho Press (US), 2009/10), Silesian Station (Old Street; Soho Press (US), 2008), Zoo Station (Old Street; Soho Press (US), 2007; Republika, (Poland) English v Argentina (Piatkus, 2003; Emecé, 2006); The Best of Enemies: England v Germany (Bloomsbury, 2000), Passovotchka (Bloomsbury, 1999) – history of 1945 Moscow Dynamo tour of UK, Dreamer of Pictures: Neil Young (Bloomsbury, 1994; Da Capo (US); Rittor (Japan); Goldmann (Germany), The Red Eagles (Macmillan (US), 1987), Robert Mitchum (W.H. Allen, 1985), Marlon Brando (W.H. Allen, 1984; Stein & Day (US)), Jack Nicholson (W.H. Allen, 1983; Stein & Day (US)), Russian Revolution 1985 (New English Library, 1983), Robert Redford (W.H. Allen, 1982; St Martins (US)), Charles Bronson (W.H. Allen, 1982), Atlas of Territorial and Border Disputes (New English Library, 1980), Jane Fonda: All-American Anti-Heroine (Omnibus, 1980) (with Gary Herman), The Moscow Option (New English Library, 1979; St Martins (US); Greenhill, 2002), War without End, Peace without Hope: 30 Years of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New English Library, 1978) (with Gary Herman), Clint Eastwood: All-American Anti-Hero (Omnibus, 1978) (with Gary Herman), The Devil’s Virtuosos: German Generals at War (New English Library, 1977; St Martins (US); Playboy (US)), Future Rock (Panther, 1976). Non-fiction for children (all since 2001), Iran (Macmillan Library, 2008), Afghanistan (Macmillan Library, 2008), The War on Terror (Franklin Watts, 2007), Geography of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007)
History of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007), Governments and Leaders of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007), Conflicts of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007), Global business: who benefits (Heinemann Library, 2007), Origins of the Holocaust (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Persecution and Emigration (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Towards Genocide (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), The Death Camps (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Fighting Back (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Aftermath and Remembrance (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), The Making of the Middle East (Raintree, 2006), Afghanistan (Heinemann Library, 2004), Apartheid (Heinemann Library, 2004), The War in Iraq (Heinemann Library, 2004), Malcolm X (Heinemann Library, 2003), Che Guevara (Heinemann Library, 2003), Oliver Cromwell (Heinemann Library, 2003), Saddam and Iraq (Heinemann Library, 2003), The War on Terrorism (Heinemann Library, 2003), India and Pakistan (Heinemann Library, 2003), Africa: Postcolonial conflict (Heinemann Library, 2003), Martin Luther King (Heinemann Library, 2002), Mohandas Gandhi (Heinemann Library, 2002), Vladimir Lenin (Heinemann Library, 2002), Yasser Arafat (Heinemann Library, 2002), Emmeline Pankhurst (Heinemann Library, 2002), Democracy (Heinemann Library, 2002), Communism (Heinemann Library, 2002), Fascism (Heinemann Library, 2002), Capitalism (Heinemann Library, 2002), People Power (Heinemann Library, 2002), The Great Depression (Heinemann Library, 2001), John F Kennedy (Heinemann Library, 2001), Joseph Stalin (Heinemann Library, 2001), Benito Mussolini (Heinemann Library, 2001)
