Born: Brighton, Sussex, England

Educated: Charterhouse, then Ravensbourne Film School.

Animals: Bertie, Hungarian Puli sheepdog with dreadlocks, and Phoebe, a German Shepherd with a gorgeous temperament, unless you are unfortunate enough to have been born as a rabbit… (see photo at right) or a burglar, and Oscar, a rescue labrador/border collie cross, who is so chilled out at times we think he secretly does drugs....

Mother: The late Cornelia James, Glovemaker to the Queen

Home: In Sussex, formerly a Georgian manor house, near Ditchling, built on the site of Roman ruins, haunted by four ghosts. Now on a historic site between Lewes and Glynde. Was occupied until recently by a whole bunch of ghosts of victims of the Battle of Lewes, but they have now been politely evicted. In Notting Hill, London, an apartment on the site of a former cinema. No spectral screenings yet during the night, but always hoping...

Awards: Charterhouse school poetry prize, 1967.

Esquire Magazine International College Film Festival, 1969.

Sitges International Horror Film Festival, 1974, Best Foreign Film, Dead of Night.

Honorary Fellowship, FHS Emeritus award by the Hypnotherapy Society, 1999 "in recognition of the sympathetic and well researched portrayal in your works of hypnotherapy in particular and alternative medicine in general."

The Merchant Of Venice, starring Al Pacino and for which I was Executive Producer, had a Royal Premiere in the presence of HRH The Prince Of Wales on 29th November 2004 and received a BAFTA nomination

The Alchemists. Public Awareness Of Science Awards 2000. Runner Up.

Bedsitcom, the hit comedy series on Channel 4 I co-created, received a Rose D'Or nomination at the 2004 Montreux Television Festival.

Dead Simple - Krimi-Blitz winner, 2005. Peter James has been voted
Best Crime Writer of the year in Germany.

Comme Une Tombe (French translation of Dead Simple) - Winner of France's 2006 Le Prix Polar International award, 2006

Comme Une Tombe - winner of Le Prix Coeur Noir literary prize at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines festival, 2007

Looking Good Dead - Shortlisted for Crime Thriller of the Year at the 2007 Richard & Judy Galaxy British Book Awards.

Prix SNCF du polar 2007 – shortlisted – winner not yet announced

Le Grand Prix de littérature policère – shortlisted – winner not yet announced

Interests:
Cars, classic and modern: My first car was a 1929 Rolls Royce hearse. Among the favourites I have owned are a 72 drophead Boss engined Mustang, a 1963 fixed head 3.8 Jaguar E-Type, a 1971 drophead V12 E-Type (the sixth one built) and an Aston Martin DB7. The most unreliable was a 1975 Triumph Stag. My most recent baby was a 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish (see photos at right), which I owned from new, and was my favourite of all-time, despite the fact that it demented me with its unreliabilty to the point where I eventually, reluctantly sold it back to Aston in sheer frustration.

I traded the Aston Vanquish for an Aston DB9 convertible, which I did not like at all - I found it cramped, noisy, and it flexed horribly on bends. I bought a black Mercedes SL 55AMG, on Jeremy Clarkson's recommendation - which was totally wicked! Quicker than the Vanquish, with more space, but sadly not much more reliable - a constant pain with electrical problems. And it did not have the Aston's "soul". When you drive an Aston everyone on the road is nice to you - everyone, even the most resolute of greens, seems to love them. But people look less lovingly at the Merc, like it belongs to a successful drugs dealer.

I've now just taken delivery of a Bentley Continental GT. I fell in love with the looks of these cars the moment they first appeared. To me they were pure sculpture on wheels, and next to my DB7, one of the most beautiful cars ever made. And a car with attitude! It has four-wheel drive, will do 198 mph, and has a combined television screen and sound system better than any living room I've ever been in! With the amount of travelling I'm doing right now, I'm thinking of living in it!

Motor racing: One of my maddest passions is motor racing. I passed my ARDS Briitish racing drivers licence test back in 2004 (after failing at the first attempt and scaring the instructor witless when I spun a Lotus Elise at 110mph on Copse corner at Silverstone). Some friends called it yet another of my many mid-life crises! Some, less charitably, said it demonstrated that I would do just about anything to promote my books! But all of them were united when the saw the car I was racing. They said, a What???

I race a 2CV Citroen in the annual championship series, the high-point of the season being the annual 24 Hour Endurance Race for 2CV Citroens at Snetterton. Click here for photos of my latest marathon race and click here for photos of my first trip around the track.

But watch this space folks -- because I harbour even more ambitious motor racing plans. Today the pond (Well the Germans do call 2CVs "ducks") tomorrow, Le Mans....

Aircraft: I used to own a Second World War Mitchell B25 bomber.

Science, Medicine & the Paranormal are my principal interests above all else (on which I have lectured extensively, and have hosted my own radio show on BBC Scotland).

Sports:
Skiing: Was selected to train for the British Olympic ski team when I was 15, but my parents, (probably very wisely), felt it would be too disruptive to my education. I still ski a lot.

Tennis: All year round. Play least badly in deep snow.

Golf: I play every six months. Once played four rounds in one day for a bet for charity (and won).

Running: I run seven days a week, between 2-5 miles.

[ Read more: II. Career  III. Film Production ]