He’s known as “the master of the up-all-night thriller” whose work contains twists that readers never expect. Now Nottinghamshire author T M Logan is taking time off from editing his tenth novel to appear at Derby Book Festival.

Tim Logan’s books have sold more than two million copies in the UK and are published in 22 countries. They regularly feature in the Sunday Times bestsellers. But success didn’t come easily for Tim. He admits he had a “big stroke of luck” when he secured an agent who enabled him to get his first book published when he was 46.

Now, according to legendary author Lee Child, Tim’s work is “assured, compelling and hypnotically readable” while the Sunday Express says “Logan belongs in the top echelons of British thriller writers”.

I met Tim at his home in Nottinghamshire just after he’d returned from the Bloody Scotland crime fiction festival in Stirling. He told me his highly anticipated tenth novel, The Weekend, will be on the bookshelves in February. It features three couples who go out walking in Yorkshire on New Year’s Eve.

They get caught in a thunderstorm and shelter in a cave where they find a large amount of money in a backpack. Should they hand it in or keep it?

“There’s a split in the group. Three of them say they should definitely give it to the police, the other three say let’s wait and see what happens. It’s a moral dilemma. I like to keep the action going, keep the pace going. I like to keep people turning the pages.”

Where did the inspiration for The Weekend come from?

“For nine or ten years we used to go away at New Year with some friends. When our kids were very small, being at home at New Year was a bit rubbish because you can’t get babysitters. So we’d go away and do something together. That was one of the sparks for the story.”

Tim explains that often his stories come from things in his own life. His last book was The Daughter which I read recently and thoroughly enjoyed. I never anticipated one of the twists that comes near the end.

“The book came from driving down to Cardiff to pick up my daughter from university. I wondered what I would do if she wasn’t there when I knocked at the door. Most of my books start from familiar settings and everyday ideas.”

Tim can hardly believe he’s now finishing his tenth novel. He started writing in 2005 and was offered a publishing deal in 2016. It came at just the right time.

“Very soon after my first book, Lies, came out I was told I was being made redundant by the University of Nottingham. It was really strange timing. I suppose it was lucky in a lot of ways because I don’t think I could have done both jobs at the same time.”

As is common in the publishing industry, Tim’s first contract was for two books. That was renewed three times and now he has a three-book deal which will conclude with book 11 that Tim will start to write next year.

He’s come a long way and has overcome adversity since starting his journalism career on the Nottingham Evening Post. Brought up in Reading, he went to university in London and then did a postgraduate degree at Cardiff Journalism School.

He signed up for a new course called media relations which, said Tim, was more like a public relations course. It led to his working for a couple of PR agencies, one in Nottingham and then Paskett PR in Derby.

But he still had the idea that he wanted to be a journalist, so he did a correspondence course organised by the National Council for the Training of Journalists. He did some work experience at the Post before being offered a trainee contract.

Wanting to work on a national paper, he wrote to half a dozen. The only one to come back to him was the Daily Mail which offered him some casual shifts working week to week.

Tim and his wife moved to High Wycombe, with Sally getting a job at the London Business School.

While he was at the Mail he was sent out for days at a time which he hadn’t realised he’d have to do. So he decided to apply for whichever specialist reporter’s job came up next.

“Everyone knows that I haven’t got a science background but the first job that came up was for the science reporter. I went for it and got it. It was good and interesting, lots of health, genetics, environment, space – anything the news desk couldn’t work out who to give it to they gave it to me.”

After three years Tim and Sally decided to move back to the East Midlands and Tim was taken on as a press officer at the University of Nottingham. He rose to become deputy director in charge of the university’s communications team – until he was made redundant.

By then Tim had got the writing bug. Whenever he had a spare hour he wrote – on trains, at the kitchen table before anyone else was up and by the pool while his children were having swimming lessons.

He sent the first three chapters of Lies to about a dozen agents. A few weeks later he got a call from Camilla Boulton at the Darley Anderson Agency asking to see the rest of the book. She signed him and he’s been with the agency ever since.

“That isn’t the typical experience of most authors. It’s much more common that you’ll write to lots of people – it’s a much more convoluted process than mine was.”

So what was it like seeing his first book in print? “It’s a huge high when you hold it in your hand and see it on the shelf. For me, it was the culmination of about ten years’ writing. I’d written another book before that which didn’t get published. It was a very special moment.

“In other ways it feels quite surreal and quite unreal because you work so hard towards it for so long and you think ‘is this ever going to happen?’

“It starts from nothing, an idea in your head. It’s always special to see it come to fruition. It’s always a great thrill, a real buzz to see the fruits of your labours.

“Sometimes people ask me what’s my favourite book of the ones I’ve written. They’re all my favourites for different reasons. Lies, my debut, will always be a very important book for me because it’s the one that was out there first. My publisher’s going to reissue it in December because hopefully there are some people out there who haven’t read it.’

Another “amazing” thing to happen to Tim was that two of his books were adapted for television. His third book The Holiday was turned into a series starring Jill Halfpenny while his fourth book The Catch became a four-part drama with Jason Watkins in the lead role.

“The Catch deviated from the book in quite significant ways, not least the location,” said Tim. “It’s one of my books that’s set in Nottingham but the people making the TV show decided they wanted to do it on the coast.

“I tried to detach the book from the TV. I thought the book is mine, it’s up there on the shelf, lots of people have read it and enjoyed it. The TV show is someone else’s creation.

“I was at arm’s length from the process anyway. I talked to the scriptwriter, saw the scripts he wrote, gave him some feedback but apart from that I wasn’t hands-on. You have to step back and let them get on with it.”

In the book Tim based the father character on himself in some ways: they are the same height and age. He never imagined that Jason Watkins would be that character.

“He’s so versatile and he’s such a good actor he brought his own expertise to it and it worked really well. The boyfriend, a good-looking, 30-ish, dark-haired actor (played by Aneurin Barnard) was very close to how I conceived the character in the book.

“I know realistically the percentage of shows that get made into TV is very small. Lots of things have to go right to make it happen.”

“Jill Halfpenny was great. She was very close to how I considered that character in The Holiday. It’s interesting how casting decisions are made.”

Four or five of Tim’s other books have been optioned by production companies. That means they’re considering turning them into TV dramas although Tim said he isn’t holding his breath.

“It’s quite a long process and they’ve got to attach all the different pieces to the puzzle – a scriptwriter, acting talent, the director and the channel.

“I know realistically the percentage of shows that get made into TV is very small. I’ve been lucky already to have two made, to be honest. A third would be great but I know the chances are always quite small. Lots of things have to go right to make it happen.”

Now Tim writes in his cabin in his garden and he says he always does his best work in the mornings.

Sally works from home most of the time, so Tim runs ideas past her to see what she makes of them. He pointed out that he gets great support from his family.

“The kids always want to read a new book and find out if they’re in it. They quite often have been in the past – characters are quite closely based on them.”

If you’re wondering what Tim’s initials stand for, it’s Timothy Michael. His real name is Utton. His agent suggested a change and Tim agreed.

“My real name is quite often misspelt. The last thing you want if someone is looking for you on Amazon or in a bookshop is to be looking for the wrong name.”

He chose Logan because Tim is a season-ticket holder at ice hockey team Nottingham Panthers who had a player called Logan MacMillan. No other author was using the name Logan, so Tim adopted it as his pen name.

Tim’s ambition is simply to keep writing. His target is to write another ten books and hopes he’ll still get as much of a thrill out of writing as he does now.

That’s great news for his readers. If you fancy joining them, remember: reading one of his books may keep you up all night.

• T M Logan will be talking about The Daughter at Derby’s Quad as part of Derby Book Festival on Friday 14 November at 5.15pm. Tickets cost £10.
• His next book The Weekend will be published on 26 February 2026

* This article originally appeared in Country Images magazine