The Last Tiger

The Last Tiger was written in Australia, where I was working as a reporter on a local daily newspaper at the time. I wasn't looking to write an historical novel, and certainly my agent wasn't looking for one, because she hated it. In fact, she hated it so much that she actually banned me from showing it to my editor at Penguin Random House. 

    The book became a peculiarity after my Gus Dury crime series was published. I kept talking about it on the road, because the story of the Tassie Tiger has always fascinated me. Eventually, when I was out of contract, and had left the agent in question, I realised I still had the Tiger manuscript gathering dust under my bed. 

    The book found its home at the brilliant, but now sadly demised, Glasgow publisher, Cargo. I wonder if the Tiger's fate struck a chord with the Cargo staff at the time? Both are now long gone, Cargo seemed to go under just as The Last Tiger was coming runner-up in Not The Booker Prize (it won by a long shot on public votes, but The Guardian, for reasons of their own, decided to change the rules mid-contest). 

    Poor Tiger. Poor Cargo. They both deserved better, but the story of The Last Tiger lives on in a new edition, released today and for the next few days free on Amazon.

 

 

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