Anya Lipska

Living in East London with its big Polish community gave Anya Lipska (a pen name) the inspiration to create a tough but educated Polish private eye/fixer, who came to the UK to escape communist rule in the Eighties. A journalist by background, Anya was able to draw on her contacts among murder detectives, pathologists and lawyers. 'Sometimes those research conversations in the pub get overheard and we get some very funny looks!' The series quickly won critical acclaim and led to Anya being chosen for 'Queen of Crime' Val McDermid's New Blood panel at Theakstons Crime Festival - Europe's biggest crime writing event - in 2013. The series has twice been optioned as a potential TV series. Under her real name A K Turner, she has now written the first of a new series launching a Goth girl crime-solving mortuary technician which is winning some rave reviews. Val McDermid called Body Language, the series opener, 'spellbinding storytelling'. Anya also makes documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, and international broadcasters like Discovery Channel. She's made programmes on everything from true crime, to plane crashes, and covered the hunt for Cleopatra's lost tomb. 'My TV day job keeps me buzzing with ideas that I can work into my fiction,' she says, 'but nothing matches the excitement of creating characters and weaving plot." Anya's website is at anyalipska.com