News of the World?: Fake Shiekhs and Royal Trappings

Before Peter Burden became an author, he was many things - a fashion king, writer of radio jingles and restaurant troubadour in the 70's, the owner of a non-winning racehorse and tycoon manque in the 80's. He travelled to Morocco and Turkey in the early 70's buying ethnic garments and gathering much life experience. In 1975 he launched the cult jeans brand, Midnight Blue. His first novel Rags was based on his adventures in the fashion trade, and became a best seller. Several more novels followed, including collaborations in turf fiction with John Francome and more recently was responsible for transforming Jenny Pitman into a best-selling novelist, having ghosted three best sellers for her, starting with On the Edge. He collaborated with Channel 4 in writing Jungle Janes, an account of one of the first reality TV shows which featured 12 English women (who should have known better) trekking through the jungles of North Borneo. More recently, he ghosted the posthumous autobiography of 60's heartthrob, David Hemmings and worked with British movie icon, Leslie Phillips on his book, Hello. He has written under his own name and several pseudonyms - as genre or voice have required. Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings is his 22nd published title.