Mike Phillips

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	Photo: © Jerry Bauer

Biography

Writer Mike Phillips was born in Georgetown, Guyana. He came to Britain as a child and grew up in London. He was educated at the University of London and the University of Essex, and gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Goldsmiths College, London.

He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster between 1972 and 1983 on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written full-time since 1992. He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist Sam Dean: Blood Rights (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness (1994) and An Image to Die For (1995). The Dancing Face (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask. His most recent novel, A Shadow of Myself (2000), is a thriller about a black documentary filmmaker working in Prague and a man who claims to be his brother. He is currently working on a sequel.

Mike Phillips co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain. His book, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (2001), is a series of interlinked essays and stories, a portrait of the city seen from locations as diverse as New York and Nairobi, London and Lodz, Washington and Warsaw.

His latest book is Kind of Union (2005).

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Crime, Essays, Fiction, Non-fiction, Short stories

Bibliography

Community Work and Racism   Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982

Smell of the Coast   Akira, 1987

Blood Rights   Michael Joseph, 1989

The Late Candidate   Michael Joseph, 1990

Boyz 'n' the 'Hood   Pan, 1991

Notting Hill in the Sixties   (photographs by Charlie Phillips)   Lawrence & Wishart, 1991

Point of Darkness   Michael Joseph, 1994

An Image to Die For   HarperCollins, 1995

The Dancing Face   HarperCollins, 1997

Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain   (with Trevor Phillips)   HarperCollins, 1998

A Shadow of Myself   HarperCollins, 2000

London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain   Continuum, 2001

Kind of Union   Continuum, 2005

Read about books by Mike Phillips at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Mike Phillips at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

1991   Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction   The Late Candidate

1996   Arts Foundation Award for Thriller Writing

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) HarperCollins Publishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith London  W6 8JB England Tel: +44 (0)20 8741 7070 Fax: +44 (0)020 8307 4440 http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

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