Lichfield agency lands spy novelist as new client through networking referral

A Lichfield marketing director has taken on a spy novelist as a client, after being introduced to him through local business networking.

Shane Robinson, director of Straightforward Agency, was referred to Chris Brown, who writes as CK Brown, and is now helping him promote his second Philip Trent thriller, The Ban Affair. 

Shane has organised photography and video for social media, assisted with PR, and provided design work and consultancy.

“Networking is about the trust people place in you, and this referral came through very quickly,” said Shane.

“Chris is a great character with a brilliant story. He’s a retired banker who started writing in lockdown and now has two novels to his name, and it’s a pleasure to help more people discover his books.”

Chris, in his 70s, spent around 20 years in banking before building his own commercial finance business, which he ran until retirement.

He wrote his first novel, The Z Affair, to fill the time during lockdown, and it has sold thousands of copies worldwide.

Chris said: “It’s lovely to have Shane helping. As soon as I met him I knew he would be able to help, and he has made promoting the book so much easier.”

The Ban Affair is set in 1972 and follows Philip Trent, a working-class former soldier from Smethwick who has become a private detective on Bearwood Road.

He is dragged back into the secret world he thought he had left behind when a mysterious Hong Kong millionaire plots to trigger a third world war, with the story taking him from Birmingham and the Black Country to Hong Kong, Budapest and Paris.

Chris is already writing a third Philip Trent novel to complete the trilogy. An audiobook is also in production, which matters to him personally as both his mother and stepfather are blind.

The Ban Affair is published by Austin Macauley and is available now from Amazon.

Shane added: “It’s been a pleasure working with Chris and hearing his story first hand. Working with a smaller agency means it’s person to person rather than going through layers of account managers, and I think that makes a real difference.

“I hope the book does really well, and I’m looking forward to settling down to read it myself - and we can’t wait for the third to be released in the coming months too!”

Straightforward Agency has been running in Lichfield for 24 years.

Pictured: Chris Brown with Shane Robinson