About

I’m an author, born and bred in suburban London. I went to uni in Nottingham and followed this with a Creative Writing MA at Sussex University (when they still had one).

After university, I worked for Channel 4 TV as a writer and editor in their programme support department for a few years and had a brief, uninspiring stint as a newspaper subeditor (lots of stories about badgers).

Then I set up my own digital marketing agency and ran this with my partner for more than 20 years.

When I turned 40, I reminded myself the only thing I’d ever actually wanted to be when I was younger was an author – but I’d parked this in the ‘dream’ pile of life.

Successfully writing books was something other people could do, but not me. Sound familiar?

There’s nothing like hitting 40 to make you re-evaluate everything, so I decided to write every day until I’d completed my first novel, Beat The Rain. It was published by two years later.

Since then I’ve written two more contemporary/literary fiction novels and I’m now working on the first in a new detective/mystery series, as well as my first non-fiction title.

I lived in Brighton for more 20 years, had two kids there, two dogs and a cat . It’s got a strong gravity, Brighton. I’ll always love it.

That said, after Covid and a lot of soul searching, in 2022, I moved to the French Alps with my partner, our two children, our insane puppy and chilled out cat. A year on, I now spend my time between France, London and Brighton, juggling work, family and writing. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

I’m also a skier, a (lapsed) marathon runner, occasional performer and drinker of coffee. I’ve nearly completed ‘a year, no beer’ and I’m not sure if I’ll start drinking again or not, to be honest. Anyway, enough oversharing.

Social media.

You’ll mostly find me on Twitter (@nijay), sometimes on TikTok (@NigelJayAuthor), Instagram (@NigelJayAuthor) and Facebook (Nigel Jay Cooper).