BIOGRAPHY
Wensley Clarkson's debut true crime book Hell Hath No Fury was in the UK’s top ten non-fiction list for many months in 1994. Biographies and true crime books followed. Wensley's earlier career was as a reporter on three of Britain’s biggest selling newspapers and his journalistic skills contributed enormously to his success as a writer. Wensley has close contacts in the underworld and his books reflect that inside knowledge. He's even been interviewed by police seeking his advice re the Brink’s-Mat robbery and the subsequent murder of a criminal involved with that historic crime.
Three of Wensley's original TV drama ideas are currently in development. He has appeared on more than 50 TV programmes - mainly about criminals - over the past 25 years. Wensley has also directed and produced documentaries, including a one-hour special on notorious crime lord Kenneth Noye, renowned for his involvement in the legendary Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983 and the later road rage murder of a motorist.
Wensley's career as a journalist began back in 1976 on the Wimbledon News in South London but he then rapidly moved onto Fleet Street where he was working as a staff reporter on the Sunday Mirror by the age of 21. He also worked on the staff of the Mail on Sunday, as well as later freelancing for all the UK national newspapers, including the broadsheets.
Wensley eventually quit newspapers to work in film and television and also wrote his first book Dog Eat Dog about life as a tabloid reporter. In 1991, he was commissioned by 20th Century Fox to write a movie script based on that book and moved with his family to Los Angeles, which inspired another book called Year in La La Land.
While in California for three years, he was commissioned to write a book about a notorious female serial killer and went on to write a dozen best selling crime books for the US market. One of those books Deadly Seduction was turned into a highly rated US TV movie and twelve of his other books have since been developed for film and television.
In the late 1990s, Wensley bought a villa on a rock overlooking the Mediterranean, in Granada, Spain, just a few hour’s drive east of the notorious Costa del Crime. British criminals in Spain have provided much of the background material for his best selling books Costa del Crime and Gang Wars On The Costa.
His other contributions to other true crime documntaries can be viewed on the TV/Media page as well as in the background of his Home page.