John Harman

Summary

John Harman has written for a living all his working life: in advertising, as a journalist in London and New York, and as a film and television scriptwriter. He is also a novelist, having written a number of crime thrillers published by Hodder-Headline, as well as more than thirty non-fiction books. He now works mainly as a ghost-writer, writing commissioned books for major publishers, along with corporate histories.

Biography

John was born and educated in North London. He started his writing life in advertising before becoming a journalist, working in the UK and America: finally finishing up on London’s famous Fleet Street. Later, he became the co-owner of a small film-production company where he wrote many documentary, training and corporate film scripts. During that time he began scriptwriting for television and wrote episodes for popular UK television series.

For the past thirty years, John has earned a living as a full-time writer of both popular novels, with a number of major (500-page) crime thrillers published by Hodder-Headline in the UK, along with more about thirty non-fiction books published. He also undertakes commissions as a scriptwriter, speechwriter, and teacher of both creative and business writing.

Over the past few years, John has been commissioned by major publishers to ghost-write many popular books. These are, generally, the life stories of well-known people but he has also ghost-written popular romantic fiction and corporate histories along with biographies and autobiographies. One of John’s books, commissioned and published by Penguin Australia, is Arthur’s War, a true story of incredible courage.

John conducts many workshops and seminars on creative writing, as well as being asked by government departments, major NGOs and commercial companies to teach executives how to write simply and well.

John has taught creative in the UK – at the University of Cambridge Board of Continuing Education – and in America at the University of California Summer Schools. In Australia, he teaches for, among others, the University of WA; Edith Cowan University; the Fellowship of Australian Writers, Katherine Susannah Pritchard Writer’s Centre and the WA State Literature Centre.

He has mentored for the WA State Emerging Writers Mentorship Scheme and has also twice mentored on behalf of the Australian Society of Authors. In 2006 he was appointed an adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Communication & Contemporary Arts at Edith Cowan University, WA.

John is now a citizen of Australia, having been granted permanent residency under a ‘Distinguished Talent Visa’ sponsored by the Australian Society of Authors.

Relevant qualifications

Member of the Australian Society of Authors
Member of the Society of Authors UK
Member of the Crime Writers' Association UK

Recent experience

Facilitator for UWA Extension's annual eight-session 'Story-Cycle' series of creative writing workshops
Presenter at the CPA Australia Congress 2016 & 2017 on 'Writing Readable Reports
Chairperson and interviewer at numerous writers' sessions at the PIAF Writers' Festival 2006 - 2017
Workshop facilitator at a series of workshops on business writing in plain English in all capital cities on behalf of Telstra.
Presenter and workshop facilitator at many libraries and writer's groups in Perth and regional WA.

NOW , DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS , conducting all creative writing and busienss writing courses as webinars via Zoom or Microsft Teams.