My name is Mark Brumby. I am a sci-fi thriller writer who lives in York and London. A Cambridge graduate and chartered accountant, I run and own a successful specialist hospitality financial analyst running Langton Capital. I published Payback in 2013 (republished as Always Adam). In Big Daddy, set at the turn of the millennium in 1999, I pose a number of scientific what-ifs which, hopefully, don’t stretch credibility too far as world leaders and their time-travel scientists unite to try and stop a timeless flight’s nuclear attack. I think my writing style and storylines would appeal to the readers of the likes of Blake Crouch, Andy Weir and Iain M. Banks.

I was brought up Hull and am very proud of my roots. I still support and follow the mighty Hull City, who escaped relegation on goal difference this season.

We were white collar from blue: my dad was a cost accountant for a caravan manufacturing company in Beverley and my mum did general office work for an insurance broker. My dad’s dad was a warehouseman and my mum’s was a telephone engineer.

After school, I worked in accounting in the city, but left Hull for Cambridge university in 1984, got married and bought a small house for circa £16,000. I ran two small businesses, both in Hull, and bought a small flat in the old town. A menswear shop with the lad who lived next-door to childhood home and a marble fireplace business with my brother-in-law. We were back in Hull every other weekend.

Although I got a full university grant from my local authority because I had been in full time work, I funded all the other living costs myself. I worked as a temp accountant for some of the summer holidays.

My career as an accountant and analyst was also taking off and I was headhunted to work in Switzerland to run a fund for Pictet & Cie. When I came back we settled in York as the state schools were ‘better’ and we didn’t — and couldn’t — consider private education for the kids.

Money is always the major factor in your life if you don’t come from a wealthy background, but I also wanted to be doing something I enjoyed — or at least I could tolerate. Being self-employed either literally, as in now running Langton, or virtually, as in being an equity salesman, where you were left to your own devices and did your own thing and then either got a bonus or a P45.

Yes, it was a ‘remain numerical’ kind of idea. I’d rather have done history or English. There isn’t (or shouldn’t) be much overlap in content between analysis and fiction. But the discipline and skill involved in writing something to get a story across is very much the same. I write a daily financial analysis  bulletin for Langton Capital so I do combine the best of both worlds.

Writing would have been the ideal ‘work where you want, when you want and for as long as you want’ solution. But I had children and couldn’t give up the day job. However, the books were made possible by the spare time I had working as an equity salesman where the first two hours of the day were hard graft and then you had time to kill afterwards.

I’ve benefited from one or two windfalls, but I’ve got a habit of recycling windfalls, though, so it was, and still is, ‘two steps forward and one step back’. If I could erase all the bad stuff, I’d be laughing. For instance, one company I worked for, Blue Oar Securities, struggled and, as a major shareholder, I made one of those ‘one step back’ moves. It wasn’t life threatening, but nobody likes to lose half their money, even if they’re still comfortable on most measures. As a family we’ve have never had a very high maintenance lifestyle so I was able to find it exciting and horrible rather than just super-horrible.

Books are equally risky in the sense that the vast majority of authors can write brilliant novels, but struggle to reach out to an audience. That’s why celebrity authors have such as advantage. They are already known and have a following. I think the secret is to be pragmatic and let the books loose on the world and see what happens. If you’re writing purely for money, you might be disappointed.

The ‘science-not-quite-fact’ should have the word ‘yet’ at the end and, as none of the science I’ve alluded to has come to pass, the stories haven’t been overtaken by events. There’s time for that to happen yet, however!

A good question. One of my biggest ironies is I haven’t actually read much sci-fi as such. A couple of Arthur C Clarke’s books, one by Asimov, a couple of near sci-fi by Michael Crichton and that’s about it. Nothing on little green men, but then both Always Adam and Big Daddy are character-driven as opposed to plot-driven. I want mine to be as realistic as possible without becoming supernatural fantasies.

Wow. Where do you start. There are so many great authors and great stories out there. More now because it is so easy to write and publish a book. I’ve always loved books and reading, whether I am reading to pass time on a train journey or looking for a novel that can really move me emotionally. Both have their place for different reasons, including the ones that stick with me because they’re frankly disturbing. If they make you think more about who we are, then that’s a real positive, irrespective of sales. 

Childhood stuff that gave me ‘the bug’ include: Red Badge of Courage, Brave New World, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm and a few other classics. Fave authors is a pretty long hit list: PG Wodehouse, Patricia Highsmith, Michael Crichton, John Le Carre, Albert Camus, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath, JD Sallinger, JG Farrell, Elmore Leonard, Mick Herron, Adrian McKinty. Ian McEwan, JM Coetzee, William Boyd, Robert Harris,, Patrick McCabe, Sebastian Barry, John Boyne. Stephen King,John Grisham, Harlan Coben, John Connelly, Rober Crais, Dennis Lehane, Patrick de Witt and Jo Nesbo, to name a few.