Sean Black grew up in Scotland, studied film in New York and has written the screenplays for many of Britain's best-known TV dramas.

While writing Lockdown, he undertook a gruelling 24-day close protection course encompassing two weeks in an army camp in Wales, followed by a week of firearms training in the Czech Republic. To research his next novel, Deadlock, he 'did time' in Pelican Bay Supermax prison which is home to some of America's most violent inmates.