Cowboy Angels is available in mass-market paperback.

The first Turing gate, a mere hundred nanometers across, is forced open in 1963, at the high-energy physics laboratory in Brookhaven; three years later, the first man to travel to an alternate history takes his momentous step, and an empire is born.

For fifteen years, the version of America that calls itself the Real has used its Turing gate technology to infiltrate a wide variety of alternate Americas, rebuilding those wrecked by nuclear war, fomenting revolutions and waging war to free others from Communist or Fascist rule, and establishing a Pan-American Alliance. Then a nation exhausted by endless strife elects Jimmy Carter on a reconstruction and reconciliation ticket, the CIA's covert operations are wound down, and the Real begins to wage peace rather than war.

But some people believe that it is the Real's manifest destiny to impose its idea of truth, justice and the American way in every known alternate history, and they're prepared to do anything to reverse Carter's peacenik doctrine. When Adam Stone, a former CIA field officer, one of the Cowboy Angels who worked covertly in other histories, volunteers for reactivation after an old friend begins a killing spree across alternate histories, his mission uncovers a startling secret about the operation of the Turing gates, and leads him into the heart of an audicious conspiracy to change the history of every America in the multiverse -- including our own.

Cowboy Angels is a vivid, helter-skelter thriller in which one version of America discovers the true cost of empire-building, and one man discovers that an individual really can make a difference.

'One of the best SF novels of the year.' Nick Gevers, Locus.

'... a gripping, page-turning thriller that is also a timely reminder of the dangers of imperialism.' Eric Brown, The Guardian.

Read an extract: part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine.

A Brief Q&A

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you originally want to be and when and why did you change your mind?

I wanted to be a writer and a scientist. For a couple of years Gerald Durrell was my hero. I had two inspiring biology teachers at school, and a fascination with natural history, but I was also a voracious reader from a very early age, and started writing stories and novels from age eleven. I was lucky enough to be able to pursue both careers in parallel for ten years or so, but science became more about form-filling than fun, and I was able to slide over to full-time writing.

Where do you write?

At home, in the usual paper- and book-filled office. The desk is turned ninety degrees to the window so I don't get distracted by the view across rooftops to leafy Highgate, and there's usually some kind of music playing.

Typewriter, word processor or pen?

I wrote my first short stories in school English exams using a pen. My first published novel was written using a sturdy Olivetti portable typewriter, but I gladly embraced word processing in 1988 and still insist on using WordPerfect despite the totalitarian dominance of Microsoft Word. I print off each draft and scribble notes and corrections all over the pages, but most of the composition is done at the keyboard.

What is a typical writing day?

I try to start around nine each morning. If I'm writing the first draft I keep going until I've accumulated at least 2000 words. That might take two hours, or it might take ten. Each day will at some point involve a brisk walk because I find that walking loosens up the mind and helps unknot knotty problems. Rewriting becomes more intense with each draft; the final draft might take only a couple of weeks, but I'll working twelve hours a day or more, trying to keep the entire book inside my head.

Name your top five pieces of music.

It's an ever-changing list. Right here, right now they're I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape by the Nugrape Twins, April The 14th Part 1 by Gillian Welch, Last Kind Words by Geeshie Wiley, Ancient Highway by Van Morrison, and Another Girl, Another Planet by The Only Ones.

Tomorrow it'll probably be something else by Gillian Welch, whose songs formed the soundtrack to the writing of COWBOYS ANGELS, perhaps a little Tom Waits, some kind of Malian groove or one of Jah Wobble's London mantras . . . but I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape is a permanent favourite. Recorded in 1926 by two brothers, real names unknown, it's as mysterious and thrilling now as then: a song about a soft drink that slyly turns into a song about everything.

Have you started your next book? Can you tell us a little about it?

I have, yes. It's a planetary opera about human evolution and the traps people make for themselves by refusing change. The story follows five characters through a period of increasing political tension between Earth and colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and climaxes in a brief and very asymmetrical war.

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