James W. Mitchell was born in Falkirk, Scotland on Halloween, 1961. His earliest memory of schooling was at nursery where, to his undying shame, he purposefully smashed into another child whilst using the swing. Then there was the infamous ‘beetle incident’. It was a school play and he was a crawling insect in a kilt… trouble was, he wasn’t wearing pants… but he was potty trained.

After that follows a whole list of shames too numerous to mention until he arrived at Fettes College in Edinburgh. There, the shame decreased as he strove to better himself, but then increased when girls and alcohol came into view. Still, somehow, he managed to secure a place at a London University to study drama and English which he then blew by dropping out and founding rock band, ‘Flesh For Lulu’. As he cavorted around Europe and America touring and recording - four albums, various EPs and songs for the films of John ‘Home Alone’ Hughes - he delayed adulthood by at least ten years… and that’s minimum. A counsellor is currently picking up the pieces.

When he finally hung up his plectrum, James attended the London College Of Printing, in hope of becoming a journalist but was horrified to discover that journalists are in fact estate agents in disguise - both dress up the truth in hope of making a quick buck. (For rants on journalism and other subjects please email the author.)

After that he worked in film production but was generally too lazy to make a go of it, so, instead, he studied screenwriting at the National Film School in Beaconsfield. Currently he has written one book, (Top Of The World)… two books if you count his first effort, ‘The Runt’, soon to be appearing in a rubbish bin near you. He has written two screenplays and numerous treatments and has a stack of rejection slips which have just been listed by English Heritage for their sheer volume and scale. Things are, however, looking up…

James lives in London with his girlfriend, two children and a leaking garage.