About the Author

Kevin Cotter was born in San Francisco to Irish/Italian parents who had married for love but separated when he was seven. In 1968, he, his mother, brother, and sisters left the States for England, moving to Hampstead, in London. It was there that Cotter entered a world that would permanently influence his life and writing: a lawless wonderland, hectic and chaotic, with abandoned houses and warehouses, crumbling cemeteries, and shops that kept their doors unlocked in the evening while the staff cashed up. He could ride the bus for tuppence, steal a bottle of Gold top milk off someone's doorstep, work for 35 pence an hour supplemented with an additional 50 taken out of the till when the boss wasn't looking. School was a cigarette under the stairs by faulty radiators, or sitting in rooms playing three-card brag. He left when he was sixteen and signed on the dole, receiving £16 a week. After countless dead-end jobs, he worked as a porter on the emergency ward of the Royal Free Hospital before joining the US Navy on the Delayed Entry Program. Six months later, he deserted. He then enrolled in college, but deserted that too. The only thing left to do was join the advertising business, which he did by driving production trucks and Make-Up & Hair vehicles to various locations throughout Greater London and the Home Counties. Cotter slowly worked his way up the ladder until he was actually producing adverts himself. Secure at last, Cotter married, but not long afterwards, he divorced his wife, quit the ad business, and started to write. Writing kept him sane, barely. In 2007, he decided to go to school in the United States, and in December 2010, at the age of 50, he graduated from San Francisco State University cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature. He had intended to go on and complete an M.A., but terminal brain cancer diagnosed in 2011 put a stop to that. He battles daily with various psychotropic drugs to fend off seizures and behavioral changes, but maintains that the best things in life are family, being an uncle, and Chelsea Football Club.