John Pendleton is the pen name of John Cowpe, a former newspaper editor who had a 39-year career in journalism and public relations.

Born in the English holiday resort of Skegness in Lincolnshire, John edited a series of local newspapers, most recently for Johnston Press. 

His fourth novel, “The Men in the Marsh”, begins with the dramatic events of October 12, 1984, when an IRA bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and members of her Cabinet. A young entrepreneur leaves the Grand Hotel minutes before the bomb goes off but the event returns to haunt him many years later.

John’s previous books are three novels “Hector’s Revenge”,“Ill Winds” and “All For Blood”, and “Skegness Past”, a mainly photographic record of his home town.

John is married to Wendy and has two grown-up children, Colin and Trudi, and four grandchildren. His interests include politics, reading, angling, tennis and going to the gym.