JAMES DEBENS

After his degree at Gonville & Caius, Cambridge University, and journalism postgraduate qualifications at university in London, James joined The Mirror Group, breaking onto the set of the Bond movie The World Is Not Enough in a black roll-neck for a string of exclusives.

James then joined the Daily Telegraph newspaper, spending years on the party circuit with Andrew Motion, Joanne Harris, Dame AS Byatt and others, as well as meeting HRH The Queen. He then compiled the Critical List for The Sunday Times, including new books; edited the columns of AA Gill and Germaine Greer; and wrote TV previews for the Sunday Telegraph magazine. He later was an editor at The Daily Mail and a trio of magazine publishing houses.

The creation of a graphic novel series about the bibulous actor Sir Ronald Timberlaine Clutterbuck and his one-way feud with Sir Alec Guinness led to two successful Kickstarter campaigns and a memorable appearance at London Comic Con among a cosplay crowd.

James lives in a sleepy market town in Kent with his Spanish wife and their King Charles spaniel, Beaulieu.