Jack Mowgley is anything but an ordinary copper. For starters, how many police officers have

George East is not everyone's idea of an author. After leaving school at 16 with no qualifications, he set out on a varied career path which included (failed) Rock god, Impressionist (house) painter, plumber, welder, demolition engineer, pickled onion manufacturer, private detective, male model, lorry driver, brewer's drayman, PR and Marketing guru, magazine editor, freelance journalist, hotel manager, snooker hall owner, seamstress, night club bouncer, DJ and radio and television presenter and pub landlord. After winning the title of Britain's Worst Publican for two years running, George and his wife Donella decided to see what life across the English Channel had to offer. They bought a ruined mill on ten acres of meadows, woods, streams and mud in Normandy, and set about surviving from self-sufficiency. As they struggled to survive, George wrote a book warning other Brits about the perils of buying property in and moving to live in France. To the surprise of the Easts and the astonishment of their bank managers on both sides of the Channel, Home & Dry in France (A year in Purgatory) was a best-seller. More books about the East's adventures and travels in rural France followed. Then George turned his hand to crime fiction and wrote Death Duty, the first book in a series about a seedy detective in charge of Portsmouth ferry port. He based the book on his experiences in travelling to and from France, and of his time behind bars when his pub was the local for a squad of CID officers. Soon followed the second, third and now fourth book in what I suspect will be a long running series. Now, George divides his time between France and England, writing travel and crime books, and, as he says, winkling out the best and cheapest bars and restaurants in all France. To find out more about George and his work, his website can be found at www.george-east.net