David Bishop
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Bishop was born in Cambridge, New Zealand and raised in Auckland. He studied journalism at ATI (now the Auckland University of Technology), and worked for the Daily News and The New Zealand Herald as a journalist. After emigrating to the UK in 1990 he became editor of the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000AD. He completed a Screenwriting MA with Distinction at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland in 2007. He helped create and establish the MA Creative Writing programme at Edinburgh Napier University in 2009 and led the programme from 2017-2022. He remains a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, delivering modules on creating narrative and writing genre fiction. He is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University in England, for which he wrote the award-winning historical thriller City of Vengeance (Pan Macmillan, 2021). His thesis interrogates the scarcity of LGBTQ+ sleuths in historical mystery fiction.
David Bishop’s published works include: The Elysian Blade (BBC Audio, 2019); Thrill-Power Overload: The First Forty Years of 2000AD (Rebellion Books, 2017); Endeavour: The Complete Inspector Morse (Vicious Imagery, 2016); Amorality Tale (BBC Books, 2015); A Massacre in Marienburg (Black Library, 2008); The Domino Effect (BBC Books, 2003); Starring Michael Caine (Reynolds & Hearn, 2003); and Bright Lights, Baked Ziti: The Sopranos Programme Guide (Virgin Books, 2001).
In 2007, he won the PAGE International Screenwriting Award in the short film category for his script Danny's Toys, and was a finalist in the 2009 PAGE Awards with his script The Woman Who Screamed Butterflies. In 2020 he won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for his audiobook original The Elysian Blade.
David Bishop has written for television, including four episodes of TV drama series Doctors. He has been dramatist for two BBC plays, Legacy (2010) and Island Blue: Ronald (2006). He is also the author of 14 fictional audio dramas, published by Big Finish Productions.
Bishop’s other book-length fiction titles are: A Murder in Marienburg (Black Library, 2007); Fiends of the Rising Sun (Black Flame, 2007); Twilight of the Dead (Black Flame, 2006); The Blood Red Army (Black Flame, 2006); Honour Be Damned (Black Flame, 2006); Operation Vampyr (Black Flame, 2005); Suffer The Children (Black Flame, 2005); Imperial Black (Black Flame, 2005); The Strangelove Gambit (Black Flame, 2005); Empire of Death (BBC Books, 2004); Bad Moon Rising (Black Flame, 2004); Kingdom of the Blind ( Black Flame, 2004); Who Killed Kennedy (Virgin Books, 1996) Silencer ( Virgin Books, 1994); Cursed Earth Asylum (Virgin Books, 1993); and The Savage Amusement (Virgin Books, 1993).
As D. V. Bishop, he writes the Cesare Aldo mysteries set in Renaissance Florence. The first in the series, City of Vengeance, won the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Novel, was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, and longlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel, the CWA Gold Dagger and the CWA Historical Dagger prizes.
Global bestselling author David Baldacci, in a review for City of Vengeance, wrote 'A first-class historical thriller with echoes of The Name of the Rose. Bishop’s spirited and richly detailed story, layered with issues of humanity that still bedevil society today, is a tour-de-force and clearly demonstrates the sixteenth century was as full of thrills and mysteries as the twenty-first, perhaps even a shade more.’
Bishop was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship while writing City of Vengeance. The novel won the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland international crime fiction festival and was a Sunday Times Crime Club Pick of the Week in the UK. The second Cesare Aldo mystery, The Darkest Sin, was published by Pan Macmillan in March 2022. The third novel in the series, Ritual of Fire, will be published by Pan Macmillan in June 2023.
MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS
• David Bishop’s blog
• David Bishop's Wikipedia page
• Who Killed Kennedy: A Doctor Who eBook by David Bishop
