Bill James was the author of the Harpur & Iles series of crime novels and has been described by Peter Guttridge of the Observer as “British mystery writing’s finest prose stylist…(who) writes with such verve and originality he transcends what can often be a stale mystery sub-genre to produce novels that are startling, achingly funny, and sometimes wholly surreal. Essential reading“. James was born and bought up in South Wales and lives there now. Before becoming a full-time novelist, he was a journalist on Cardiff newspapers, on the Daily Mirror in London, on The Sunday Times, and on radio and television. He has worked as a beach photographer and brick works labourer and was once a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. The Harpur & Iles series now runs to more than 30 titles, and is published all over the world. Book four in the series, Protection, won the Le Point prize for the best European novel of 2004 when it came out in France. In 1996 it was televised by the BBC under the title Harpur & Iles. The 22nd, ‘mordantly funny’ (Kirkus Reviews) book in the series, Wolves of Memory, was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award in 2006.

Out of series, James has written a comic novel set in a university Creative Writing department, called Making Stuff Up, as well as espionage novels, and The Last Enemy, a doomed love story set in World War 2. He also writes as David Craig, Judith Jones and James Tucker. Several of the Craig novels are set around Cardiff docks, where James spent much of his childhood. The Craig Novel Whose Little Girl Are You? was made into a Warner Bros. film, The Squeeze, starring Stacy Keach, Edward Fox and Carol White. The latest Craig novel is Tip Top, featuring a maverick Assistant Chief Constable, Esther Davidson. The Judith Jones novels are Baby Talk and After Melissa. As James Tucker he has written a documentary book on council housing and a critical study of the novelist, Anthony Powell, along with historical and non-crime novels, including a satire on the film publicity industry, Burster. A novel set around the Abdication, The King’s Friends, originally published under the name James Tucker, was later reissued under the name Bill James.

Bill James sadly passed away in 2023.