William Shaw is a renowned English journalist and author, best known for his crime novels. Shaw was born and raised in Brooklyn, but has spent a significant portion of his career working in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has taught English literature at Le Moyne College, North Carolina State University, and University College Cork, and has spent many summers in Ireland teaching courses in Irish literature.
Shaw has written a number of critically acclaimed novels, including "The Birdwatcher," "Salt Lane," and the DS Breen and WPC Tozer series, which is set in 1960s London. His writing is known for its depth and complexity, and his characters are often grappling with difficult moral issues. In addition to his crime novels, Shaw has also written non-fiction books, including "Westsiders: Stories of the Boys in the Hood," an account of several young would-be rappers struggling to establish themselves against a backdrop of poverty and violence in South Central Los Angeles.
Shaw has had a varied career in journalism, working as an Assistant Editor for the Goth magazine ZigZag, contributing to Details Magazine, and publishing his work in a number of major publications, including The Independent and The Times. He is also known for his oral history of Britain New Age Travelers, "Travelers’." Shaw is currently based in Brighton, where he plays music with the Brighton Ceilidh Collective and runs an online book event called "The Big Book Weekend." He also writes opinion columns for his local newspaper, "The Pilot," and produces his own digital newsletter for Substack, "Wormwood: Reflections on an Endangered Nation."