Peter Buckman

In my first job, I was the youngest editor at Penguin Books; now I must be one of the oldest literary agents still working on behalf of their clients. In between, I was a full-time writer of books and articles and scripts for the stage, film, radio, and television - a trade to which I have recently returned, with The Pumpernickel Mysteries, a crime series involving love, lust, laughter, and of course murder.

They feature a quartet of characters in their seventies who are all still working, still learning, still enjoying loving and arguing, and still have much to offer the younger generation who come to them with their problems.

Leo is a lawyer who runs a one-man-and-a-dog practice in London's Soho; Pumpernickel, a black poodle, is the dog in question; Marion is a well-known therapist and Leo's partner (they met via the dating page of a satirical magazine); and Dennis, 'the world's most fearless crime reporter', is Leo's oldest friend. The four of them tackle, each in their own particular way, cases that make the headlines, bringing with them the wisdom, the folly, and the entertainment of experience.