Michael Litchfield is the author of several true-crime and current-affairs books. His background is rooted in investigative journalism. He worked as a crime correspondent for several national newspapers and was contracted to Time/Life magazine to investigate the Mafia's infiltration of the Bahamas government. At one stage, a contract was taken out on his life and he was smuggled out of Nassau on a cruise ship to the US, where he was kept for a time in a safe house before being repatriated. Back in the UK, his books on the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie and the biography of the controversial Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Sir James Anderton, coupled with the Northern Ireland terrorist issue, were highly acclaimed, staying for several weeks in the top ten non-fiction bestsellers' lists. His last staff newspaper appointment was as political editor in London with Northcliffe Newspapers. His most recent book for John Blake Publishing is The Murder of Lord Shaftesbury, published in 2016.