Jon Stock (born 12 May 1966 in England) is a British author and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
.
Early life and family
Stock was educated at
Sherborne School
(God and My Right)
, established = 705 by Aldhelm,
re-founded by King Edward VI 1550
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent, boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, chair_label = Chairman of the governors
...
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
fine art photographer
Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...
, and they have three children. He is currently the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Mansfield College, University of Oxford. Jon Stock Novelist, Non-fiction writer oyal Literary Fund 24 August 2022 He has three brothers, one of whom is Andrew Stock, former presidentANDREW STOCK Mall Galleries. Retrieved 24 September 2012. of the
Society of Wildlife Artists
The Society of Wildlife Artists is a British organisation for artists who paint or draw wildlife. It was founded in 1964. Its founder President was Sir Peter Scott, the current President of the society is British artist Harriet Mead.
The society ...
.
Journalism
Stock is a full-time author and journalist. He was the editor of the ''Weekend'' section of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' in the UK from 2005 till 2010. He left the paper in January 2010 to complete a trilogy of spy thrillers and returned in March 2013 to edit the paper's online books channel, before rejoining the staff as ''Weekend'' editor in June 2014. He left the paper in October 2015 to pursue his writing career.
Additionally he was a columnist for ''
The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's ed ...
'' magazine in India, contributing to their column "The Last Word" from 1996 until 2012. He previously worked in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
, India, for a period of two years, as a foreign correspondent for ''The Daily Telegraph'', and has also lived in
Cochin
Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...
, Kerala.
Bibliography
Stock has written six spy novels under his own name, and, most recently, five psychological thrillers under the pen name J.S.Monroe.Jon Stock Goodreads.com 8 August 2018 ''The Riot Act'' (1997) was published by
Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tail is London-based independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It specialises in publishing work in translation, particularly European crime fiction. In January 2007, it was bought by a British publisher Profile Book ...
, ''The Cardamom Club'' (2003) was published by Blackamber (now part of Arcadia Books), and in India (2004) by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Crime Writers' Association for its best first novel award. It has been published in France by
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Founded by Ga ...
as ''Lutte Des Casses'' (2002) as part of its acclaimed ''Série Noire'' imprint.
''Dead Spy Running'' (2009, published by Blue Door) was the first in the Legoland trilogy.Legoland Trilogy Goodreads.com, 18 November 2014. The fourth book, ''Games Traitors Play'' (published by Blue Door on 3 March 2011), was the second in the trilogy. His fifth book ''Dirty Little Secret'' (Blue Door, 1 July 2012) was the concluding book in the Legoland trilogy.
''Legoland trilogy''
Stock signed a three-book deal in July 2008 with Blue Door, a new
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
imprint, for "a good six-figure sum", according to ''The Bookseller''(15 July 2008). The
spy novel
Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligen ...
series, all starring
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
officer Daniel Marchant, commenced with '' Dead Spy Running'', which was published on 7 January 2010. The second in the series was ''Games Traitors Play'', published on 29 September 2011. The last in the series, ''Dirty Little Secret'', was released on 5 July 2012.
While researching for ''Dirty Little Secret'' he came across the Seraj, an Iranian fast attack craft based on the high-performance British speedboat, the Bradstone Challenger. Stock wrote a detailed article in the ''Daily Telegraph'',Jon Stock "Little boat, big danger: how a British-made speedboat has become a weapon in Iran's standoff with the US" ''The Telegraph'', 20 August 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012. on how the Iranians plan to use it as a fast attack boat against the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
Stock's sixth novel, ''Find Me'', was published by ''Head of Zeus'' under the pen name ''J. S. Monroe'' in the UK in February 2017, and by ''Harlequin MIRA'' in the US in March 2017. Find Me is a '
high concept
High concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise. It can be contrasted with ''low concept'', which is more concerned with character development and other subtleties that are not as easily summa ...
' psychological thriller featuring Jar, a young Irish writer, who is convinced that his girlfriend, who committed suicide five years ago at university, might still be alive. Publishers Marketplace has mentioned ''Find Me'' as having "notes of Harlan Coben's ''
Tell No One
''Tell No One'' (french: Ne le dis à personne) is a 2006 French thriller film directed by Guillaume Canet and based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Harlan Coben. Written by Canet and Philippe Lefebvre and starring François Cluzet, th ...
'' and
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...
's '' Sweet Tooth''". ''Find Me'' has been translated into 14 languages till now.
''To Snare a Spy''
''To Snare a Spy'' is Stock's seventh novel, published 20 April 2017 by The Nare Hotel Co Ltd, Cornwall, UK. It is a spy thriller featuring protagonist Noah, a teenager who learns of a Russian mole in the British government.
''Forget My Name''
Stock's eighth novel, ''Forget My Name'', was published by ''Head of Zeus'' under the pen name ''J. S. Monroe'' on 4 October 2018. This book is about a woman who loses her memory, and only remembers her home address, and has lost all her ids after her bag is stolen.
''The Other You''
Stock's ninth novel, ''The Other You'', was published by ''Head of Zeus'' under the pen name ''J. S. Monroe'' on 9 January 2020. It's a psychological thriller about a
super recogniser
"Super recogniser" is a term coined in 2009 by Harvard and University College London researchers for people with significantly better-than-average face recognition ability. Super recognisers are able to memorise and recall thousands of faces, ofte ...
called Kate, who suspects that her partner has been replaced by his doppelgänger.
The Man on Hackpen Hill
Stock's tenth novel, ''The Man on Hackpen Hill'', was published by ''Head of Zeus'' under the pen name ''J. S. Monroe'' on 3 September 2021 and is the third novel to feature DI Silas Hart, head of Swindon CID. A suspense thriller, it begins with the discovery of a dead body in the middle of a mathematical
crop circle
A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the ...
in Wiltshire.
No Place to Hide
''No Place to Hide'' is Stock's eleventh novel, to be published by ''Head of Zeus'' under the pen name ''J. S. Monroe'' on 13 April 2023. A psychological thriller, it is about a successful doctor in London whose life and marriage implode when his past as a medical student catches up with him.
The Sleep Room
Stock's next book is a non fiction book titled ''The Sleep Room''. It is based on the psychiatric treatments conducted by British doctor
William Sargant
William Walters Sargant (24 April 1907 – 27 August 1988) was a British psychiatrist who is remembered for the evangelical zeal with which he promoted treatments such as psychosurgery, deep sleep treatment, electroconvulsive therapy and insu ...
in the 60's and 70's. Stock researched this book by contacting the survivors of Sargant's experiments. He also accessed Sargant's papers at the
Wellcome Collection
Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the Wellcome C ...
and the recently released documents at National Archives in Kew.The Bridge Street Press acquires Stock’s ‘chilling’ psychiatric exposé The Sleep Room in major pre-empt The Bookseller 18 January 2023 The rights to publish his book in the UK and Commonwealth has been bought by The Bridge Street Press, from the Little, Brown Book Group.
Movie deal
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
acquired the movie rights to the ''Dead Spy Running'' franchise in October 2008 to make the first of a proposed three-movie franchise. They signed on Charlie's Angels director
McG
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...
to direct the movie along with
Stephen Gaghan
Stephen Gaghan (; born May 6, 1965) is an American screenwriter and director. He is noted for writing the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh's film '' Traffic'', based on a Channel 4 series, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted S ...
to write the screen play. It was initially reported that after the shooting of McG's last movie ''
Terminator Salvation
''Terminator Salvation'' is a 2009 American military science fiction action film directed by McG and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. It is the fourth installment of the ''Terminator'' franchise and serves as a sequel to '' Termi ...
'', he would be taking up the shooting of the remake ''Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'', but with the cancelling of this movie by Disney it had appeared that ''Dead Spy Running'' was the next movie to be taken up.
In March 2012, it was reported that
Jonathan Levine
Jonathan LeVine is an American art dealer, instrumental in the proliferation of lowbrow and street art on the East Coast of the United States.
About
LeVine grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. As a teenager, he encountered punk rock music and the p ...
was in talks with Warner Bros to direct ''Dead Spy Running'', but in September 2012 Warner Brothers announced that they had hired
Adam Wingard
Adam Wingard ( ; born December 3, 1982) is an American filmmaker. He has served as a director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, actor, and composer on numerous projects.
Following an early career as a member of the mumblecore ...
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
horror movies, including ''
You're Next
''You're Next'' is a 2011 American slasher film directed and edited by Adam Wingard, written by Simon Barrett and starring Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A. J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton and Rob Moran. The plot concern ...
'', ''
V/H/S
''V/H/S'' is a 2012 American found footage horror anthology film and the first installment in the ''V/H/S'' franchise created by Brad Miska and Bloody Disgusting and produced by Miska and Roxanne Benjamin. It features a series of found foo ...
'' and ''
A Horrible Way to Die
''A Horrible Way to Die'' is a 2010 American horror film directed and edited by Adam Wingard, written by co-producer Simon Barrett, and starring A. J. Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg, Brandon Carroll, and Lane Hughes. The story follows an esca ...
''. In 2014, McG has bought the movie rights with his own company,
Wonderland Sound and Vision
Wonderland Sound and Vision is an American production company founded by director and producer Joseph McGinty Nichol in 2001. It independently develops, produces and finances its own slate of feature films, television and digital projects. The c ...