Although he was born in Cumbria, M W Craven grew up in the North East before running away to join the army when he turned sixteen.
After training as an armourer for two and a half years, he spent the next ten travelling the world having fun. In 1995 he left the army and completed a degree in social work, with specialisms in criminology, psychology and substance misuse.
In 1999 he joined Cumbria Probation Service as a probation officer, working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later, he took the plunge and accepted redundancy to concentrate on writing.
He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals.
