He had always been a huge reader of different genres of fiction but paranormal history works are what he loves best. After working for several years as the editor of “Men’s Health Magazine,” the desire to write fiction only grew stronger. He used to be lead editor for “FHM” at a time when it was known for covering fashion and sport rather than weather girls and Hollyoaks starlets. Francis was the launch editor of several magazines including the UK edition of “Men’s Health,” “Total Sport Magazine” and “FHM.” It was at university that he began writing journalistic pieces for the likes of “The Face,” “Arena” and “I-D” that soon got him the attention of the biggest magazine publishers in the space.Īfter finding a job in magazine publishing, he would live for more than two decades in North Lambeth and was a prominent leader of the Lad-mag revolution during the 1990s. He also had all the time to study and ponder the novel and the mechanics involved in writing it.

He started thinking seriously about fiction after studying objective correlative by Eliot and the iceberg theory by Ernest Hemingway. It was while he was at university that he got into serious reading, which transported him into another world. Cottam went to the University of Kent and studied history before he started working as a London journalist. Cottam was always fascinated by how there could be extraordinary things just beyond human grasp.

He was also a huge lover of creepier comic stories and “Dead of Night” the portmanteau film was a favorite. As a child, he used to devour the black magic themed novels by Dennis Wheatley and anything in the horror anthologies published by Pan Macmilan. It was not until he was in his late thirties that he thought he needed to bite the bullet and get started writing.įrancis Cottam has always been excited by dark fiction, which perhaps explains his venture into paranormal fiction. Cottam was born and raised in Southport Lancashire and has asserted that writing was something he wanted to do ever since he was just eight years old.īut the certainty would turn out to be a bad thing as it made him overconfident and resulted in crippling procrastination. Over the years, he has written more than ten novels and at least two novellas that have all done very well.įrancis F.G. After working for several years in historical novelists, he switched genres and went on to write paranormal thrillers using the pseudonym F.G Cottam. Most of his earlier novels are set in World War II settings. Smith Literature award winning novel “The Firefighter” that he first published in 2001 as Francis Cottam. Cottam made his writing debut with the W.H. Cottam is a bestselling novelist and former magazine editor whose works have been made into feature films.

The Resident by Francis Cottam