Bryan J Mason

Bryan J Mason wrote his first novel, Shaking Hands with the Devil, in the late 1980s, but put it away in a drawer after his agent Carolyn Whitaker from London Independent Books narrowly failed to get it published. He concluded that he was a failed author. However each time he read the manuscript he still found it exciting and funny and was sad it could not be read by others. He finally decided to redraft it, firmly placing the action in the late ʼ80s for today’s reader. And finally, thirty years after the first draft, it was published it in 2021.

He has made a living as a rent collector, making sound effects for BBC Radio, as a Tax Inspector and occasional actor. He writes regular theatre reviews for StageTalk Magazine and Bristol 24/7 and is director of the long established Hotwells Pantomime. He enjoys hanging around in graveyards, which might come in handy one day.

An Old Tin Can is the first in a new black comedy crime series set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Future titles will be Dead On scheduled for 2025 and Never A Happy Ending.

He lives in Bristol with his wife and has two children in their twenties. He is never happier than hanging around in graveyards, which he thinks might come in handy one day .