CONFESSIONS OF A GHOSTWRITER, Talk by Mark McCrum, Thursday 12 March, 7.30pm

Books written by ghostwriters regularly top the bestseller lists, often selling millions of copies around the world and bringing even greater fame and wealth to their celebrity ‘author’. But to most of us, the work of the anonymous hired scribe toiling away in the background is a mystery. So what’s it like to be a ghostwriter? What are the skills required, and how you do you become one? Mark McCrum reveals the truth in this rare and fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the publishing world.

Mark McCrum began his career as a travel writer, with well-received books about Southern Africa (Happy Sad Land), Australia (No Worries) and Ireland (The Craic). A continuing interest in the stories of people in unusual settings led him to document the UK’s first two Reality TV series, 1900 House and Castaway 2000 (both top ten bestsellers).

He then wrote about Robbie Williams on his sellout 2001 tour of Europe, which became the No.1 bestseller Somebody Someday. He has ghostwritten four other top ten bestsellers, including Bruce Parry’s Tribe and Walking With The Wounded, describing the celebrated 2011 polar expedition of wounded veterans with Prince Harry. Other non-fiction books range from the stories of forced marriage survivors to a lightearted survey of global etiquette.

Mark then turned to crime-writing, with humorous whodunnits such as The Festival Murders, Murder on Tour and Ghosted, with accolades ranging from ‘Book of the Week’ in the Daily Mail to ‘Book of the Year’ in the Literary Review and Mail on Sunday. His next novel, Death on The Press Trip, will be published in August 2026 by Bloodhound.