PHOTO: Philip Catshill, multi-talented author and artist, photographed at home in England where he continues to write, paint, and inspire.
Resilience Reflection Mystery And Art
Philip Catshill, former police officer and stroke survivor, reveals how personal trauma, humour, and perseverance shape his gripping mysteries and heartfelt memoirs, creating deeply human and unforgettable narratives.
Philip Catshill’s life has been shaped by extraordinary challenges—and an even more extraordinary will to overcome them. A former British police officer, his journey has included a near-fatal stroke, the loss of language, physical ability, and stability, followed by a slow, stubborn, and self-driven return to life, love, art, and literature. From the depths of adversity, Catshill has carved out a voice that is as resilient as it is reflective—each word hard-won, each story a testament to endurance.
His writing straddles memoir and mystery, compassion and crime, reality and reflection. In his Mike Newman Mysteries, Catshill fuses his first-hand knowledge of policing with nuanced character studies, laced with humour and emotional weight. In books like For All Eternity and The Mad Days of March, readers encounter not only compelling plotlines but the unmistakable signature of someone who understands what it means to lose and to fight for restoration.
Even more striking is the story behind the stories. In Never Say I Can’t, Catshill charts the landscape of survival, faith, and the long, uphill path of learning to speak, think, and create again. That same spirit breathes through his fiction, art, and music—creative outlets that, remarkably, he taught himself to master after partial paralysis.
Philip Catshill’s work does not just entertain—it uplifts, challenges, and moves. His books are not polished artefacts from a distance but crafted from within, word by word, stroke by stroke. They are not merely tales imagined; they are battles won.
Your Mike Newman Mysteries delve into police corruption and personal trauma. What inspired you to blend these themes?
After I had completed the first manuscript for Never Say I Can’t, a local published author read it through. As at that time, I was a complete unknown, she suggested changing it into a third-person novel rather than a memoir… Okay, but the change didn’t work for me, so I added a what if? What if the character hadn’t received an accidental blow but received his injury from a deliberate assault… Mike Newman emerged as one of those old-fashioned plodding policemen who hadn’t quite adapted to the rapidly changing challenges of the 1980s. That reflected the real life existence in the police service of several colleagues and people I had worked with, and perhaps a little of my own character seeped into the fiction, especially in the way Mike deals with the public and the respect he shows even to known criminals. Unfortunately, during the years of my police service, there were officers dismissed or convicted for minor criminal offences, and at least three imprisoned for assault, so these events did influence the drift of my novel, although the crimes committed in The Mike Newman stories are fictional and in no way reflect the conduct of any real person or police officer.
After the success of my third novel, I published my original memoir.
In “For All Eternity,” Mike faces moral dilemmas. How do you balance character development with plot in your stories?
I try to balance tragedy with humour. In the police, as you move from one call to the next, you can travel from the absurd to the serious in the course of a single shift. From a minor theft to a serious assault was always just a radio call away. The only way we coped with these severe changes during the nineteen-seventies was with humour. As Mike Newman explains to his friend, you can’t carry other peoples’ grief from one job to the next. I have tried to make each character unique by the way they act, their habits, mannerisms and individual speech idioms. I avoid strong language but one character does find it difficult to construct a sentence without a profanity. One character is almost always moody, but with good reason! Another curses by stringing together the names of classical composers… She might say, “Chopin Bach and Beethoven…” In all walks of life, innuendo, rumour, and suspicion often play a part in shaping the careers of employees, and this was especially true in the police. Careers could be blighted by an unproven rumour.
Your memoir, “Never Say I Can’t,” reflects resilience. How did your personal experiences shape your writing voice?
In June 1981, I took my wife and our friend for a weekly shopping trip. Thinking we had finished loading the bags into the boot (or trunk as Americans say), our friend slammed shut the boot lid. Unfortunately, my head was in the way! The blow made me giddy for a while, but I recovered and thought nothing of it. Two days later, after a late night party to celebrate my promotion, I suffered a major stroke, and that stroke affected my memory, mobility, dexterity, speech, and even my eyesight! At the time, no one expected me to survive for thirty minutes, but thirty years later, I thought I should record the events of that night and each step of the subsequent eighteen months it took for me to return to work as an operational police sergeant.
The Mike Newman series is set in the 1980s. Why did you choose this era for your narratives?
This era reflects my own experiences of policing procedures and hospital treatments for brain injury. Mobile phones were only available to the privileged few. Criminal trials had not yet included DNA in evidence. Policing in Britain was undergoing a transitional period from the traditional local beat bobby of the sixties to the to the high speed and rapid response of the nineties.
“The Flower Angel” addresses child exploitation. What challenges did you face in writing about such a sensitive topic?
Although a fiction, The Flower Angel is an uncomfortable read because it is based around real events. I have withdrawn the novel so it is no longer available.
Two other books are available, both of which compete as my personal favourites! The year 2012 marked the 30th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict. I took a character from the Mike Newman stories and flung her into a transatlantic pursuit culminating in Argentina at the start of the Falklands War! Penny for Them different as it is narrated in the first person by a 20-year-old woman, which for a grey-haired, moustached, septuagenarian writer, was quite a challenge in itself! My most recent novel is The Mad Days of March, which again, is different as it is written in the form of a daily diary of Terry March. Both Penny for Them and The Mad Days of March have attracted stunning reviews and both have received IndieBRAG medallions for quality, independent fiction.
Your website features both writing and art. How do your artistic pursuits influence your literary work?
Strangely, they are separate pursuits and neither one influences the other, except that is in cover design! Some of my paintings reflect my passion for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Perhaps that is why my final book in the Mike Newman series introduces a nimble character who happens to be a ballerina!
In your books, characters often confront adversity. How do you ensure their journeys remain authentic and compelling?
Because my characters are identifiable by their individual characteristics, I try to convey a scenario that leads the reader to expect the character to behave in a particular way. This can be useful if the character isn’t named, but the reader can identify him. This happens in Who Else is There? Mike Newman recognises the suspect, as will the reader, but because Mike doesn’t say his name out loud, others present in the scene do not know to whom he refers. This gives the principal antagonist the opportunity to escape into the next novel in the series!
What advice would you offer to aspiring authors facing personal challenges while pursuing their writing dreams?
Follow the old adage … don’t get it right, just get it written! No one will ever read it if you don’t write it! However, editing is essential. Whether you chose to employ a professional editor, friends in a writing group, or just choose to follow my path and do the editing yourself, never publish anything until it is honed to perfection. Get it written, then get it right! Also, find a unique author name as this will put you and your books at the top of an Internet search engine!
