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James Harland Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

James Harland

James Harland

James Harland Biography

James Harland’s real name is Matthew Lynn. He was born in Devon, and lived for a few years in Dublin, but has spent most of his life in London. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford University. As a journalist, he writes business and financial articles for The Sunday Times and Bloomberg News. He currently lives in London with his wife Angharad, also a journalist, and daughter Isabella.



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Interview

James Harland (a.k.a. Matthew Lynn) discusses how he transitioned from a financial journalist to a thriller writer, the inspiration behind his first book, and the research involved in writing it.

Are you coming to mystery writing from another job?
My background is as a financial journalist. I worked at The Sunday Times as a business reporter for seven years, and I now write a European business column twice a week for Bloomberg News, which is syndicated in quite a few papers as well as on the Bloomberg.com website. I split my time about half and half between journalism, and writing fiction. I find that is a good division. Journalism is great background for finding out about how lots of different industries work, and what different jobs involve. Journalists are good at finding out information quickly and efficiently, and they are also good at sorting out the interesting information from the dull. The only downside is that while journalism teaches you a lot about writing, it's the wrong sort of writing. You have to break a lot of habits when you start writing fiction.

What led you to write mysteries?
I'm a big fan of mystery and thriller writers, so that is what led me into writing in that genre. My favourite authors for a long time have been people such as Conan Doyle, John Buchan, Graham Greene, John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth. But the genre also chooses you. I read all types of different...

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Books by this Author

Books by James Harland at BookBrowse
The Month of The Leopard jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for James Harland but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Harlan Coben

    Harlan Coben

    Harlan Coben was born and raised in New Jersey.  After graduating from Amherst College as political science major, he worked in the travel industry. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, a... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Month of The Leopard

    Try:
    The Innocent
    by Harlan Coben

  • John Grisham

    John Grisham

    Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Month of The Leopard

    Try:
    The Summons
    by John Grisham

We recommend 3 similar authors

View all 3 Read-Alikes

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