What inspired you to become a watchmaker?

My dad is a clock maker and he has friends who are watchmakers. Between them they made me realise that if I had a strong interest in the trade, it would be a fantastic time to get into it.

What made you choose Breitling as a company to work for?

Breitling as a brand has become increasingly popular over the last few years. For that reason it is an exciting company to work for due to its continual growth.

How long did you work for Breitling before you were put forward as a posible candidate for the British School of Watchmaking?

I worked for Breitling for one year.

Obviously going back to college is a big commitment; what attracted you to the British School of Watchmaking?

Completing the two-year course and obtaining the WOSTEP qualification will mean I will have the chance in the future of certain employment at most watch companies worldwide.

Why do you think you were chosen to be a student? What do you feel makes you stand out from the rest?

I joined Breitling with the intention of working in the workshop for a year before attending the school. I also believe that my motivation to do well on the course came through during the interview process.

Can you tell me a bit about the school?

The first year is spent learning how to make small parts by using hand tools and a lathe. This teaches you the hand skills, but more importantly the patience to make and repair watches. The second year is where you gain some experience in repairing a variety of different brands culminating in a three-day examination.

What do you think makes a good watchmaker?

You need to have a practical mind and enjoy fixing mechanical things, but most importantly you need the patience and the self motivation to make what you do not only just enough, but make it perfect. If something does not meet the personal standard you have to start all over again.

Watchmaking is considered to be an unusual profession; would you say watchmaking is a dying craft?

Absolutely not; in fact I would go as far to say the trade is the complete opposite. With the popularity of all kinds of watches continuing to grow there is a vast shortage of skilled watchmakers to repair them.

David will be a qualified watchmaker in July and will continue his career with Breitling.

Your new book The Edge has recently been launched, can you give a brief synopsis of the book?

The Edge follows Detective Inspector Jon Spicer’s lonely hunt to find those responsible for murdering his wayward younger brother, Dave. It’s on a Sunday morning when Jon receives a call from an officer in a Peak District town asking him to identify a body that has been hacked to pieces then dumped on the moor inside several bin-liners. When Jon realises the local police aren’t motivated to propery investigate the murder because they suspected Dave was dealing drugs to the town’s youth, Jon takes compassionate leave and using the skills he’s learned from being in Manchester Police’s Major Incident Team, begins to search for the killer himself. But the town has many secrets and soon Jon’s life is in danger too.

Obviously the genre crime is your forte. Have you ever considered writing in a different genre?

Yes-crime novels, or more accurately psychological thrillers, are my speciality-but I’ve also written a few short stories of a supernatural nature. I also will have to start on my idea for a children’s novel one day, my mum has been desperate I write it for years!

A few of your novels are Manchester based, is there a reason for that?

I moved to the region over twelve years ago and find Manchester, with its magnificent but faded remnants of big industry, a fascinating place. Every time I see the Manchester Ship Canal, I can’t quite believe it was dug by tens of thousands of navvies. I’m orginally from rural Sussex and there are no giant mills, derelict factories or silent canals where I grew up. Plus, of course the city has a great energy about it; for me its an ideal location for exploring the darker side of human nature. 

Will you ever expand to other cities in your novels?

DI Spicer’s family are orginally from the west coast of Ireland. His great-grandfather moved to Manchester during the industrial revolution and escaped from the slums of the city’s ‘little Ireland’ through bare-knuckle fighting. In a future plot, Jon returns to Ireland when investigating links to organised crime and the breeding of pit-bulls for illegal dog fighting.

Have you ever based any of your books on your own personal experiences?

My second novel, Pecking Order, is based on a battery farm for chickens. This plot arose directly from a summer job I once had on one-but only lasted three hours in before walking out. In that short amount of time I witnessed a particularly sadistic individual who I thought, given the chance would make a very good torturer. He became ‘Rubble’ in pecking Order, a naive but cruel man duped into believing he’s been enrolled as an agent on a very secret-and very sinister- Government project.

What inspires you to write a novel?

That’s perhaps the hardest question a writer is ever asked - for me, inspiration can come from anywhere. It could be a newspaper article, a comment overheard in a pub or - in the case of Hell’s Fire-seeing the once-derelict Gorton Monastery as I passed it on the train into Manchester. What often motivates me to see an idea through into an actual novel is the intrigue of the issue I’m dealing with. In Shifting Skin it was the dodgy end of the cosmetic surgery industry, in Savage Moon it was the possibility that big cats, such as panthers, are living in the wilder corners of Britain.

Who is your favourite author?

My favourite author would be a combination of three. Graham Greene for his ability to construct such perfect sentences, Iain Banks for his incredible imagination and Cormac McCarthy for his awesome descriptive powers.

What attributes do you think make a good writer?

The most important attribute a writer can have is probably dogged determination. It’s a bizarre and difficult business to get into and one in which your early attempts are almost certain to end in rejection and failure. The famous examples is JK Rowling, whose first Harry Potter novel was ‘declined’ by every single UK publisher. My first novel, Outside the White Lines was rejected about fourteen times. I received the odd snippet of advice from a few of the letters turning it down and these comments enabled me to keep reworking it and submitting it again. It doesn’t get any easier, either. The idea for my third novel, Killing the Beasts, was turned down by my editor and I had to move publishers to Orion in order for it to see the light of day. It went on to be named by Shots Magazine as a Best Crime Book for 2005.

What is a normal writing day like for you?

I treat it very much as a normal job. I try to be sitting down, pencil in hand by nine in the morning at the latest. I’m lucky to have a glorified shed in the garden which I’ve avoided connecting up with either a phone or internet. I write in silence, longhand, on to a lined A4 pad, only using the left-hand page so I can add later amends to the empty page opposite. At elevenish I break for a brew then carry on writing until hunger forces me into the house. I never get much writing done after lunch, usually I’ll try and plan out the chunk I need to write next.

Then I go for a run. When the kids get home from school, my writing day is over!