Malcolm “Mal” Tattersall spent almost 40 years working as a staff journalist on some of Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid newspapers. Originally from Lancashire, he once found himself under house arrest in a brothel after a military coup in Africa, taught English in Istanbul, narrowly avoided being thrown in Turkey’s notorious Midnight Express prison, and, for a brief period, was a brickie’s mate labouring on a building site in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Now semi-retired, Mal loves travelling, writing and supping real ale – although not necessarily in that order.