Oliver Dowson - Author

After months where my life and thought patterns have largely been dedicated to matters medical, I'm finally getting back to writing - as I have always done, for pleasure. The other day, I discovered this article from The Conversation US that perfectly describes my writing philosophy. Well worth a read!

Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challenges Resilience is often presented as feats of bravery and endurance. But everyday practices like journaling, drafting a text or even writing a to-do list are manifestations of a capacity to adapt.

Delighted to have 'Spies on the Silk Road', the third in my Repurposed Spies series, picked as one of The Wishing Shelf's Books of the Month!

Books of the Month | The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Recently I was thrilled to be interviewed by Hannah Murray for her weekly radio show The Book Show on Talk Radio Europe. We talked about my latest thriller, Spies on the Silk Road, the third in the Repurposed Spies series, and some of my more interesting travel experiences!
Listen on my YouTube channel at at https://bit.ly/treinterview

Terrible to see the destruction in Myanmar (Burma) - what little news gets through. Back in 2016 when I last visited, the country was calm and opening up to tourism. Since then, military takeover, civil war and now an earthquake. So sad. I thought I'd share some memories of a trip in happier times.

Proud to have won the Literary Titan book award for Spies on the Silk Road! .... and I can reveal to the reviewer that I'm already progressing well with the fourth book in the Repurposed Spies series, provisionally titled Spies in Shanghai, that I hope to publish later this year.

Very happy today to see a new and very kind review for the first book in my 'Repurposed Spies' series, that I published nearly two years ago. The reviewer goes on to say he's now reading the second in the series, Spies on Safari - and there's now a third, Spies on the Silk Road.

More reviews encouraged!

My latest review - The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter.
Despite the length (and the author’s note at the end says it was originally even longer), for me it didn’t feel a page too long – I was absorbed from the very beginning. It’s an MI5 spy novel, but one has to suspend credulity, and espionage aficionados who expect a degree of verifiable accuracy may be disappointed as there are just too many entirely unrealistic situations. But hey, it’s a novel, and an extraordinarily enjoyable one.
The heroine, Slim Parsons, is a complicated soul and I found her very likeable. She’s an MI5 operative in the way that James Bond is, in the sense that she does crazy things but always comes out on top. The difference is that she does those things in and around Milton Keynes, frankly not an 007-exotic location, which pulls everything rather closer to earth.
It’s difficult to write more without giving away elements of the plot, but it’s very up-to-date, with political elements and world events easy to find real world parallels to, a billionaire villain and artificial intelligence. It seems to me likely that it was written with the expectation in mind of turning it into a TV series or film, but it’s a real novel, not what I call an ‘expanded screenplay’. Highly recommended.
Full review on Goodreads

Oliver Dowson's review of The Enigma Girl 5/5: Despite the length (and the author’s note at the end says it was originally even longer), for me it didn’t feel a page too long – I was absorbed from the very beginning. It’s an MI5 spy novel, but one has to suspend credulity, and espionage aficionados who expect a degree of verifiable ...

My review today - Karla's Choice, by Nick Harkaway - as posted on Goodreads. Most reviewers seem to love it, I'm not such a fan.

My conclusion: "If Harkaway is a great writer (and the evidence is that he certainly could be) I feel he should step away from ostentatiously hanging on to his father’s coattails and develop his own style and story line."

If you've read it, tell me what YOU thought.

Oliver Dowson's review of Karla's Choice 3/5: I’m at something of a loss as to what to make of this book. Nick Harkaway, son of John le Carré, has unashamedly attempted both to match his father’s writing style and “plug a gap” in the fictional history of George Smiley. In the first endeavour, he undoubtedly succeeds, though I felt...