I have been writing seriously, and indeed comically, for nearly 30 years. I have written for stage and radio and am currently in the process of writing my first book, Who Killed Martin Hannett, which is a biography, and which will be published in 2007 by Aurum Press. I hope to write my first novel next.

I was originally a performer and initially my writing grew out of working for theatre-in-education and community theatre companies, as part of the devising ‘team’. I subsequently wrote a number of TIE pieces and adapted existing children’s stories for Christmas shows.

I won a Mobil Oil/Royal Exchange Writing Prize in 1992 for my play Halfway and from then on my writing became more focussed and lucrative. Since then I have written a number of stage plays - Ian and Myra, Boyscry and The Tchilak for Durham Theatre Company; Heaven and Hell for Northern Stage and a trilogy of music theatre pieces (Face, Oh You Pretty Things and Me) for Newcastle College and The Tyne Theatre. This trilogy looked at music, popular culture, drug use, style, fashion and politics in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I did another music theatre piece, called All the Lonely People, which was based around characters and lyrics from Beatles songs and was performed at the Gulbenkian Studio Theatre at Newcastle Playhouse.

I also wrote a play specially for colleges and performing arts students called Quark, Strangeness and Charm, which took the Waco massacre as a starting point to examine cults, indoctrination and surveillance. It has been performed a number of times.

For radio I have written an episode of The Pamela Myers Show for Radio 4; an adaptation of the Brazilian popular opera Opera de Malandro for Radio 3; and Selling Horses, a 90-minute Play for Today for R4. These were all produced by Kate Rowland. Most recently, I created a 30-minute drama for BBC 7, Dalek, I love you, which was produced by Carrie Rooney and broadcast in February 2007. This is now a BBC audio book alongside two other Dr Who-related radio plays. I have been commissioned to write a sequel which will be broadcast in 2008.

I have also written a number of plays for young people, which have included Somewhere Hot, Two Tribes and Stages. These have all been performed at the Tyne Theatre.

I teach performing arts, including writing, at Tyne-Metropolitan College in North Tyneside.

Literary agent: Kevin Conroy Scott at AP Watt
Current publishers: Aurum Press
Email address: colin@csharp8.wanadoo.co.uk
Tel: 07775 794891