James Collins

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About James Collins
James Collins is an award-winning author and awards nominated screenplay writer. He writes thrillers, comedy and horror novels.
His writing awards include an Arts Council of Great Britain award for creativity, the EGPA award for best gay fiction. His screenplay for 'The 13th' was selected in the Best Screenplay category at the London Greek Film Festival, 2017. His best-selling horror, 'The Judas Inheritance', is the novel version of 'The 13th'.
James writes thrillers, comedy novels, gay fiction and horror. He has also written screenplays, stage musicals and comedy cabaret revues, which have earned him other awards. He writes a daily blog about life in Greece, symidream.com, and keeps an author's blog, Writing Thoughts. He also writes for travel blog sites.
Originally from Romney Marsh in Kent, UK, he now lives in Greece with his husband and a deaf cat.
"James's great talent lies in his careful observation of the absurd and the amusing, the dramas and the difficulties, and in reporting what he sees with kind humour and a writer's eye for the details essential to lively travel writing." Anne Zouroudi, author of Bloomsbury's Greek Detective mysteries.
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Books By James Collins
“Symi’s charm is in its people and the minutiae of their lives; James’s great talent lies in his careful observation of the absurd and the amusing, the dramas and the difficulties (because nothing in Symi is ever simple), and in reporting what he sees with kind humour and a writer’s eye for the details essential to lively travel writing.”
Anne Zouroudi, author of Bloomsbury’s Greek Detective mysteries.
To inherit his aunt's fortune, Tom Carey must unlock a one-hundred-year-old family mystery. The solution lies on the Romney Marshes where the village of Saddling lives by an ancient Lore. Unknown to Tom, the villagers set in motion a chain of calculated events that will ensure that the winter solstice will witness their last ever 'Saddling' festival.
Unaware that his life is in danger, Tom befriends two village youths. Through the mists of fear and confusion, their friendship forces Tom to confront a secret of his own.
Tom finds himself the unwitting hero in a struggle between superstition and sense, denial and love, with no escape from either.
"Meticulously imagined in the eerie mists of Romney Marsh. A wonderfully evocative landscape of mystery." Ann Butler Rowlands (Author of 'Heaven')
Part memoir, part observation, this scrapbook of anecdotes and witty observations takes us from Romney Marsh to Greece via a graveyard campsite, an adult film festival, and some unusual wordplay.
What to expect when dining with the Turin jet set, what to learn when moving to Symi, and how to behave when held at gunpoint in Egypt; it's all here along with a few train journeys, some mountaineering, and Symi's first civil partnership.
Oh, by the way, there is a fair amount of nonsense too.
“Symi’s charm is in its people and the minutiae of their lives; James’s great talent lies in his careful observation of the absurd and the amusing, the dramas and the difficulties, because nothing in Symi is ever simple, and in reporting what he sees with kind humour and a writer’s eye for the details essential to lively travel writing.” Anne Zouroudi, author of Bloomsbury’s Greek Detective mysteries.
The spectre of revenge stalks Saddling, and the Eastling is hungry for a victim. At some time on autumn equinox night, someone in the village will die.
Tom Carey fights to hold a divided village together while racing to unlock the riddle of a boy long dead. But pages of the Lore are mysteriously missing, and all he has to work with are a looker’s spoketale and a blind woman's poem. As solstice approaches and the vengeful grey-hang thickens, Tom realises who the victim could be. Him.
The Eastling is the third in the Saddling series, following The Saddling and The Witchling.
“Believable characters, gripping atmosphere and tension, all skilfully woven into an absorbing mystery set in the eerie landscape of Romney Marsh.”
(Emma Batten, author of Romney Marsh historical fiction)
Praise for the Saddling series.
"Gripping from the start."
"A real page turner right to the end."
"Just keeps on twisting."
"A compelling tale from the first page."
Saddling is cursed and dying. The village will be lost unless someone burns at the stake on solstice morning. Six months after the life-changing events of The Saddling, Tom Carey must solve the witchling mystery and risk his life to save his lover.
The Witchling is the follow-on to James Collins' best-selling novel, The Saddling.
Mystery and action combine in a sweltering thriller set on Romney Marsh.
Praise for The Saddling
"Superbly descriptive."
"Gripping from the start."
"Full of intrigue and danger."
The Witchling is a follow-on from 'The Saddling.' You don't need to read The Saddling first, but you will get more from The Witchling if you do.
'The Saddling' took the water element, sacrifice and winter solstice as its background. 'The Witchling' takes the fire element, acceptance and summer solstice. The main characters return, you will meet new ones, but is William Blacklocks really dead? That's just one of the mysteries to be solved as the story hits the parched ground running and doesn't let up until the fire-pile is lit. The question is, who will burn to save Saddling?
If you have read James Collins' body-swap comedy, 'Remotely' you will enjoy this, the first Miss P novella. If you've not read 'Remotely', 'Honestly' is an excellent way to get to know its most endearing character.
Britain's newest and most pointless TV talent competition is coming to Middlestone-On-Sea. 'So You Think We're Remotely Interested?' has taken Friday night viewers by storm as it streams live variety shows from remote, provincial theatres across Britain. The theatre with the most audience votes wins regeneration and revival, and lord knows, Middlestone-on-Sea needs both.
The dying seaside backwater rests its hopes on the performance of two ex-best friends, gay Gary and straight Stag.
The visiting celebrity judge, the mysterious and timeless Miss P, knows that for all to be well, they must mend their broken friendship. But there is no success without trial. She magically swaps Gary and Stag into each other's bodies. Secrets are learned, comedy ensues, and yet the community remains divided.
Rifts must be healed, differences accepted, and bodies swapped back before the season grand finale in four days' time otherwise Middlestone will lose everything.
"Once you start on James Collins' coming of age, body-swap comedy, you won't be remotely interested in putting it down." G. J. Mugwatch MP
Some Amazon reviews for James Collins
"Brilliantly observed and a wicket wit."
"Lots of laughs and loads of page turning moments. Yes, it was hard to put down."
"Another unputdownable book that had me engrossed from beginning to end, and chuckling."
"Finished this book yesterday and oh so amusing, would love to see it as a film."
"More, I want more! I truly could not put this book down."
Drover and Pete are two hopeful drifters looking for a better life. Desperate for food, they break into an isolated house deep in a forest. There they accidentally shoot an old man just as the rest of his family arrive for a birthday gathering.
Under intense suspicion from the family, the boys attempt to cover up the accident. But they are not the only ones keeping a murderous secret. Mistrust and deception unearth a primeval ritual as the lies give way to a terrifying truth.
With time running out and a deadly force closing in, Drover and Pete’s survival rests on the strength of their friendship, but they must face some horrific choices in order to stay alive.
James Collins is the author of 'The Judas Inheritance' on which is based the forthcoming feature film 'The 13th', starring Kurtis Stacey, Rebecca Grant, Wookie Meyer, Richard Syms, and Lorna Doyle. He lives and works in Greece. This is his ninth novel and second horror-thriller.
The Judas Inheritance was inspired by the ruins of a village on the Greek island of Symi in the Dodecanese. The story is complete fiction, but I was captivated by the mysterious dates, numbers, and names that appear on many of these hauntingly strange buildings that seem to conjure up a curiosity about the lives of the people who once might have lived there. While the story is set on an imaginary island, visitors to Symi will recognise a number of features which I have borrowed.
In 2013 a motion picture adaptation of The Judas Inheritance, called The Judas Curse, was filmed in Greece. It is important to stress that film adaptations, of necessity, are often markedly different from the books on which they are based. This is the novel version of the original story before it was adapted for film.
All will become clear when you dip into the strange and hilarious, bawdy and bonkers world of peter, Alan and their mates in this nude, crude and totally rude comedy novel. (Grown ups only - contains bad language.)
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