Born in 1975 to an English father and a Norwegian mother, Giles has led a varied and somewhat unconventional life and admits that this suits him just fine. As a boy he was a daydreamer. His teachers would often tell his parents he was easily distracted and his grammar school entry exam results proved it. Fortunately, he scraped in via an interview and immediately became captivated by one subject; history. At 13 he suffered a bout of glandular fever, spending many weeks away from school. But this turned out to be an auspicious event. Attempting to alleviate his boredom, Giles’s mother bought him a book. That book was the Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore and it changed Giles’s life. There, in his hands, was the key to another world, even if it did take a viral infection to show him how it worked.

Over the years his passion for History, Classics, and English grew, along with his love of books. In 1994 he began a degree in English Literature and Language at UCE. By now his love of storytelling was strong, but he was still vulnerable to distraction. Having a rock ‘n’ roll singer father had nurtured another dream that would lead him from the musty world of books to the bright lights of fame. He sent a demo tape to a London record company and was offered a live audition. But so were 8000 others. From his home in Leicestershire he took the train to London with his mother who, prior to his audition, plied him with vodka to calm his nerves. It worked. Giles was offered a place in a pop group which secured a £1,000,000 recording deal with World Records. And so Giles swiftly went from being the first of his family to go to university, to the first of his family to drop out of university. As the lead singer in nineties pop group Upside Down, he achieved four top-twenty hit records in the official UK sales charts and appeared on countless national and international TV shows including MTV and VH1. Upside Down were the subject of a BBC documentary which followed the band’s formation and rise to fame, including their first concert for 15 000 fans, and their first appearance on the UK’s most prestigious TV music show, Top of the Pops. Giles has sung for H.R.H The Prince of Wales and has performed at such venues as The Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena, alongside artists such as Eric Clapton, Dame Shirley Bassey, The Back Street Boys and Meat Loaf, to name a few. He has made promotional appearances all over the world and starred in music videos in Switzerland, USA, Mexico, Czech Republic, UK and Germany. Curiously, one shot in Bognor Regis is among his favourites.

But boybands grow up, and after three years with Upside Down Giles launched a solo career which took him across Europe and saw him live for a while in Munich, Germany. Though creatively fulfilling and enormously enjoyable, this was a smaller venture and after two years of touring Giles and his record label parted ways. To make ends meet he worked as a model in London, appearing in national TV ads and poster campaigns for brands such as Canon, Panasonic, and Walls Ice Cream. He also worked for several advertising agencies, including electrical goods giant JVC and movie marketing company Empire Design, writing sales copy and ad concepts and exercising a lifelong fascination with slogans and marketing. His poetry has been broadcast by the BBC, which has in turn led to him receiving numerous commissions.

In 2004 Giles began working on RAVEN, the story of a boy’s relationship with a band of marauding Norsemen from across the grey sea. It is a rich and violent coming-of-age story with more than a touch of the old sagas about it.

BLOOD EYE is the first in the RAVEN series, which ranges from the windswept coast of 9th century Britain to the sunlit domes of glorious Constantinople.

Having Viking ancestors himself, Giles believes the story has always stirred in his imagination, waiting like the Norsemen for the right time to burst upon the world. In 2006 he was picked up by the prestigious New York literary agency, Writers House, and in 2007 he secured representation with top London agency AM Heath. Shortly afterwards, his lifelong dream became reality when he signed a three-book deal with Transworld publishers, a division of Random House. Giles is proud to have Katie Espiner as his editor (in fact he still can’t quite believe it). Katie has worked with some of his storytelling heroes, including Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell. Furthermore, RAVEN the movie may one day hit the screens, since United Talent Agency of Los Angeles has taken Giles on to represent his film and television rights. However, Giles has his feet firmly on the floor beneath his desk. Currently, he is writing the second in the RAVEN series. He lives in London where he writes full-time, though he enjoys nothing better than tapping away on his laptop in his family cottage in the mist-shrouded Norwegian fjords, the home of the Norsemen.

RAVEN – BLOOD EYE is now available in paperback, whilst the second book, RAVEN - SONS OF THUNDER is out in hardback.