James Twining (born 13 December 1972) is a British thriller writer.
Although born in London, Twining spent most of his childhood in France after his family moved to Paris 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 where he read French Literature and Linguistics and graduated with a First Class degree in 1995.[ citation needed ]
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), 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. [1] Twining and his co-founder were both named as one of the eight "Best of Young British" entrepreneurs in The New Statesman. [2]
Twining began writing thrillers in 2003. He now lives in North London with his wife, two daughters and a son and is a lifelong Arsenal fan.
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 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
The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries. By the two Acts, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland—which at the time were separate states with separate legislatures, but with the same monarch—were, in the words of the Treaty, "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain".
The Prince and the Pauper is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547, it tells the story of two young boys who were born on the same day and are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive, alcoholic father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London, and Edward VI of England, son of Henry VIII of England.
John Boydell was a British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form. A former engraver himself, Boydell promoted the interests of artists as well as patrons and as a result his business prospered.
Ernest Aldrich Simpson was an American-born British shipbroker, best known as the second husband of Wallis Simpson, later wife of the former King Edward VIII.
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth is an English novelist and journalist. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and The Kill List.
Sir James Dyson is a British inventor, industrial designer, landowner and entrepreneur who founded Dyson Ltd. Traditionally, he is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2020, he is Britain's richest person with an estimated net worth of £16.2 billion. He served as the Provost of the Royal College of Art from August 2011 to July 2017, and opened a new University, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, on Dyson's Wiltshire Campus in September 2017.
Geoffrey Robinson is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North West for 43 years, from 1976 to 2019. He was Paymaster General from May 1997 to December 1998, resigning after it was revealed that he had lent his government colleague Peter Mandelson £373,000 to buy a house. From 1996 to 2008 he was the owner of the New Statesman, a centre-left weekly political magazine.
Thompson Twins were a British pop band that formed in April 1977. Initially a new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity during the mid-1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States, and around the world. In 1993, they changed their name to Babble, to reflect their change in music from pop to dub-influenced chill-out. They continued as Babble until 1996, at which point the group permanently dissolved.
Japan–United Kingdom relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between Japan and the United Kingdom.
Francis Frith was an English photographer of the Middle East and many towns in the United Kingdom. Frith was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, attending Quaker schools at Ackworth and Quaker Camp Hill in Birmingham, before he started in the cutlery business. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1843, recuperating over the next two years. In 1850 he started a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward. A successful grocer, and later, printer, Frith fostered an interest in photography, becoming a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853. Frith sold his companies in 1855 in order to dedicate himself entirely to photography. He journeyed to the Middle East on three occasions, the first of which was a trip to Egypt in 1856 with very large cameras. He used the collodion process, a major technical achievement in hot and dusty conditions.
Sex Traffic is a two-part British-Canadian television thriller, written by Abi Morgan and directed by David Yates, that first broadcast on Channel 4 on October 14, 2004. The series, produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax, stars John Simm as Daniel Appleton, a journalist who uncovers a trafficking ring involving Anti-Trafficking officers employed by a private security company in the United States. As Daniel vows to help Elena, one of the trafficked girls, he attempts to expose the business which forces young women from Eastern Europe into a life of sexual slavery.
Events from the year 1801 in the United Kingdom. The Acts of Union 1800 came into force this year.
Legend Press is an independent British book publisher founded in 2005 by Tom Chalmers. Specialising in mainstream trade paperback fiction, Legend Press became the youngest-run publisher in the UK trade market. In 2006, the company set out its intention to double the number of titles it publishes each year until reaching 20–25 in 2009. As well as the range of novels, London-based Legend Press also began an annual short story series looking to boost the popularity of short fiction and make it more aligned to today's reader and society.
Adam LeBor is a British author, journalist, writing coach and editorial trainer. Born in London in 1961, he worked as a foreign correspondent from 1991 until his return to London in 2019. Mainly based in Budapest, he also lived in Berlin and Paris and spent substantial amounts of time reporting from the former Yugoslavia.
Syed Ahmed is a Bangladesh-British Entrepreneur, Presenter and Television Personality. He is the founder and CEO of British technology company SAVORTEX. He was a contestant on the 2006 series of The Apprentice, finished at fifth place.
Peter David Jones is a British entrepreneur, businessman, and reality television personality with interests in mobile phones, television, media, leisure, retail, and property. He is the last remaining original investor on the BBC Two and now BBC 1 show Dragons' Den and on American television series American Inventor.
Sean Thomas studied Philosophy at University College London. As a journalist he has written for The Times, The Daily Mail, The Spectator and The Guardian, chiefly on travel, politics and art. When he writes under the name of Tom Knox, he specialises in archaeological and religious thrillers. More recently he has written novels under the pseudonym S K Tremayne.
Sabirul Islam is an English entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker. He has written three self-help books. His Teen-Trepreneur board game sold to over 550 schools in the United Kingdom and in 14 countries worldwide. Since 2011, he has spoken at over 700 events worldwide as part of his Inspire1Million campaign.
Legend is a 2015 biographical crime black comedy thriller film written and directed by American director Brian Helgeland. It is adapted from John Pearson's book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, which deals with their career and the relationship that bound them together, and follows their gruesome career to life imprisonment in 1969.
The Bay of Silence is a 2020 internationally co-produced thriller film directed by Paula van der Oest from a screenplay by Caroline Goodall, based on the novel of the same name by Lisa St Aubin de Terán. It stars Claes Bang, Olga Kurylenko, Alice Krige, Assaad Bouab and Brian Cox.