Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. He began his career as an actor, his credits including small-screen greats such as Dempsey & Makepeace, Birds of a Feather, Juliet Bravo and four series of cult children’s classic Maid Marian And Her Merry Men. Whilst continuing his relationship with TV through writing for a variety of shows, he branched out into stand-up comedy and worked all over the world for more than twenty years, appearing regularly at The Comedy Store, as well as on screen with Spitting Image, The Mary Whitehouse Experience and Live At Jongleurs. He has gone on to present widely on TV and radio, hosting shows including Going Live, TV’s Favourite Detective, Passport to Murder, Mark Billingham’s Rule Book of Crime and documentaries on everything from Patricia Highsmith to Columbo. He has also showcased his peculiar and largely useless ability to retain trivia on radio and TV shows such as Quote Unquote, The Write Stuff, Pointless Celebrities, Eggheads and Celebrity Mastermind, which he won, thanks to knowing far more than is healthy about Elvis Costello.

Billingham’s novels have now sold over 6 million copies. He has had 20 Sunday Times bestsellers (every one of his titles) and has spent over 124 weeks in the top ten. Sleepyhead has now sold in 30 languages and two TV series have been made of Mark’s books – Thorne by Sky starring David Morrissey, and In the Dark by the BBC. A third is currently in development. His latest novel, The Murder Book, was published in June 2022.

In May this year, Mark introduces Detective Miller - his first new series in 20 years, get ready for Detective Declan Miller and The Last Dance.