2020 was a great year for local author Iain Maitland – AbbottVision, the makers of Shameless and Cracker, optioned his 2019 novel, Mr Todd's Reckoning, for a six-part TV series.

Iain also saw his thriller, The Scribbler, the first of a series of Gayther & Carrie detective novels, published by Contraband in May.

He's now finished his latest thriller, 3 Bluebell Lane - set in Felixstowe – and Contraband has just committed to publishing that in 2021.

Iain has also changed literary agents, joining Tom Cull at Cull & Co. "TV's the game-changer for authors and Tom has a successful background in TV. He has the contacts to place my other books with TV production companies in 2021."

What's next for Iain? "I currently have a TV script of my memoir, Dear Michael, Love Dad, doing the rounds and I am writing a synopsis and sample material for a family saga novel through to Christmas to see if there's any interest in that." He says.

"Abbottvision tells me there's huge demand for TV content at present so I'm starting work on a sequel to Mr Todd's Reckoning in the New Year. The Scribbler went down well so I'm then going to write The Key Man, the second Gayther & Carrie thriller … and there's one or two other TV projects in the pipeline as well. 2021 will be another busy year."