James Twining (born 13 December 1972) is a British thriller writer.

Life

Although born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Twining spent most of his childhood in France after his family moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

when he was four. On his return to the United Kingdom when aged eleven, he went to Merchant Taylors' School, eventually winning a place to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

where he read French Literature and Linguistics and graduated with a First Class degree in 1995. Twining's early career was spent in the business world. His first job was in the Corporate Finance Department of SBC Warburg (now known as

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

), where he worked mainly on hostile bids and defences and leveraged buyouts. Then in 1999 he set up an e-procurement business (GroupTrade) with a friend. The business was eventually sold to another entrepreneur in August 2002. Twining and his co-founder were both named as one of the eight "Best of Young British" entrepreneurs in The New Statesman. Twining began writing thrillers in 2003. He now lives in North

with his wife, two daughters and a son and is a lifelong

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

fan.

Work

Twining wrote his first book '' The Double Eagle'' in 2003 and was signed up by agency Curtis Brown. It was published by Harper Collins in the United Kingdom and United States in 2005. Three sequels, '' The Black Sun'', The Gilded Seal and The Geneva Deception were published in 2006, 2008 and 2009 respectively. All four books feature art thief Tom Kirk and are set in the art world and underworld. In each case, Twining builds a modern-day thriller involving

art theft Art theft, sometimes called artnapping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to se ...

around a series of historical events and/or artifacts. In 2009 Twining announced on his website that he was working on the fifth Tom Kirk novel. As of yet there have been no further updates on this, and his website has not been updated since 2010

References

External links

Official James Twining website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twining, James McKinsey & Company people 1972 births Living people People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood English thriller writers English crime fiction writers English male novelists