Mark Ellis's World War II London is a place where crime flourishes alongside the heroism of firefighters and fighter pilots  and his charismatic Detective Frank Merlin deals with rapists, and racketeers amidst the carnage of falling bombs..

Hi there I'm your host Jenny Wheeler and today Mark talks about one of the best kept secrets of wartime Britain - how the Blackout and the Blitz led to a 60 per cent surge in crime all over the land.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

Mark's fascination with wartime London

The Blackout Crime Wave noone talked about

What attracted Mark to historical thrillers

How his writing method had evolved

The authors he likes to binge read

The secret to his writing success - and it's one anyone can copy

What follows is a "near as" transcript of the conversation in full with links to many of the key books and events discussed.

Where to find Mark Ellis

Website:  http://www.markellisauthor.com/

Facebook:

Personal page:  https://www.facebook.com/mark.ellis.794

Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MarkEllisAuthor/

Twitter:  @MarkEllis15

Jenny: But now, here's Mark.  Hello there Mark and welcome to the show, it's great to have you with us.

Mark: Great to be with you Jenny

Jenny: I like to start off at the beginning - the best place to start - and that is - was there a "Once Upon A Time" moment when you realised you had to write fiction or your life would be the lesser for it?  If so what was the catalyst?

Mark Ellis - historical mystery author

Mark: I wouldn't put it that way. I think when I was young I was a voracious reader and after going through various childish ambitions like wanting to be a cowboy or a comedian or something like that I did have an ambition to be a writer.

And I wrote in school and then in college and did get compliments from various people that I might have some potential.  However, I went to do law in Cambridge, I became a barrister and very quickly life took over.

For a brief while when I was a barrister I used to try and get up at 6 in the morning and write and I wrote  about half a novel, but then it just became too much for me. And then after being a barrister I went into business for other people and then for myself.

The moment when I knew I had to do it  - and would be able to do it eventually  - was when I had a computer company with a partner and we sold it and that's when I realised "if i don't do it now I will never do it." that's when I started.  That was about ten years ago.

Jenny: The first novel in your Frank Merlin World War II series was Princes Gate. Was that also the first one you wrote or were there others before it?

Mark: Yes it was the first one I ever completed. I had attempts at others that I never finished.

Jenny: So how did you settle on the historical crime/mystery genre as the area you wanted to work in?

Mark: I do read all sorts of genre but I suppose when you are working hard in a business career you want to have something light to read - it takes your mind off things. I always found crime particularly good at that - crime books - and at the same time I have always had a fascination for history so when I had the time to write and decided to write - I gave it a hard think as well.

Historical crime is a growing and increasingly popular area, and I must admit I wanted to fulfil myself artistically but the idea of making money was not completely irrelevant so I thought I might have better sales but also this was really that context which attracted me and for which I had ideas.

Jenny: What specifically attracted you to World War II?

Mark: My parents both lived through the war, my father was in the navy and served abroad in various places like Africa, and my mother was a teenager at the beginning of the war and just got her first job during the war.

She was a secretary in the local railway office - that's where she met my father after the war.  And she used to tell me these stories - like m...