Peter James, the author of the hugely successful Roy Grace detective novels – which have sold more than 19 million copies worldwide – moved to Jersey from Sussex last month with his wife, Lara, and their three dogs.
And his Island-based fans will get the chance to quiz him on his new Roy Grace novel, Dead If You Don’t, at a Q&A and book signing session at Waterstones in Queen Street this Thursday.
Mr James (69) said he and his wife decided to move to Jersey because the Island ‘ticked a lot of boxes’. He explained: ‘First off, I wanted a bolthole to write in. In Brighton I have a whole office set up, but I never get any writing done in the daytime because I always get called by someone. We also have a place in London, but there are always so many meetings I have to attend there.
‘And I’m not at all happy about Brexit – England politically is an absolute shambles at the moment.
‘Lara and I wanted to stay really close to Britain and the Channel Islands appealed.
‘Jersey is stunningly beautiful, the people are very friendly, the restaurants are great and obviously the tax side is less brutal.’
Mr James, who has moved to Jersey as an entitled high-value resident and is renting a house near town in the parish of St Lawrence, added: ‘We also love Jersey’s proximity to France and with a light aircraft we can get door to door from here to Sussex quicker than we can get from my flat in Notting Hill to Sussex.’
His Roy Grace crime series has been published in 37 different languages, he has landed 12 consecutive No 1s on the Sunday Times’ bestsellers chart – and he is planning a Jersey-based Roy Grace novel next year.
‘I’ve already got one in mind and my plan is that I will write this [Jersey] novel next year. First I need to understand Jersey better.’
Mr James has scheduled a meeting with the States of Jersey Police later this month to help him in his research.
He added: ‘There is massive scope post-Bergerac [to put Jersey back on the crime-fiction map with Roy Grace] because villains don’t operate boundaries – detectives travel all over the world after them.’
