Peter Wise

I've been a writer all my life, working for many advertising agencies as well as having my own business. I live in North London with my wife, Kay. We also have two daughters, Katie and Alice, and an unruly cockapoo called Bobby.

Disturbing the Water was my first work of fiction. It's a collection of original short ghost stories that tends towards the traditional, but rather than the standard settings of haunted houses or Gothic graveyards, they mostly take place around water. Many of the protagonists are anglers, but you certainly don’t have to like fishing to enjoy them.

They feature tragedy, redemption and the occasional comedy, with lots of twists in the tale. Some also include real history, from the English Civil War to the Witch Craze, and from World War II to a Victorian serial killer. They're set all over the UK, as well as in North America, Ireland and Ukraine. The book was favourably reviewed everywhere from Country Life magazine and Angling Times to The Rest is History podcast.

My latest book, Chilling the Water, has more stories in the same vein but with a broader range of settings and characters. Locations include rivers in Scotland, India and Africa, a remote American lake, a Balkans moat, an English village pond and a Cambodian waterway that that breathes. Along with anglers, protagonists include a biologist, a cook, a missionary and various book clubbers. The book also features wonderfully evocative full-page illustrations by wildlife artist Simon Trinder.