SJ Sherwood grew up in the quiet of the Midlands but traded the green fields of rural England for London, chasing the kind of adventure only a city can promise. He arrived as an actor. A scholarship took him to East 15, a degree to UCL, and the years that followed carried him from the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park to the Manchester Library Theatre and the stage at Chipping Norton. He turned up in Casualty, and opposite Timothy West in a one-off for television.

He stepped away from the boards and changed direction — two investment banks, then a career in enterprise sales with some of the world’s leading technology companies.

Through it all, writing has been the constant. He is drawn to the clarity drama brings to life’s complexities, to the voices of the unheard, and above all to deceit and betrayal.

That fascination runs through everything he writes — from Am I..., a suspense thriller of murder and narcissistic manipulation, to The Denounced trilogy, where six orphans are forced to trust one another to survive a brutal regime. His non-fiction debut, Apologise... Hell, No!, brings the same eye to the art of the apology — sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving.

SJ Sherwood shares life with his wife, two children and a Lhasa Apso in the Devonshire countryside — returning to the lush green fields he left behind in his youth.