Tony Kent

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Tony Kent is the author of the successful Killer Intent series of books, featuring unorthodox criminal barrister Michael Devlin, international intelligence operative Joe Dempsey and tenacious TV reporter Sarah Truman..

Beginning with Tony's debut novel 'Killer Intent' - released in January 2018, selected as one of the 10 books included in the inaugural Zoe Ball Book Club on ITV1, a fixture in the WH Smith bestseller list for almost four months of 2018 and now included in the Crime Time Best of the Year 2018 - the series continued in February 2019 with the release of 'Marked For Death'

Early life and education

Born in 1978 in West London, Tony grew up on a council estate in Northolt before his parents moved he and his brothers to Hillingdon. The middle child of a close-knit Irish family, Tony has two elder brothers, a younger brother and a younger sister.

Educated in the local Roman Catholic primary and secondary comprehensive schools, Tony had no intention of going beyond secondary education and instead was expecting to join the traditional family trade of building. It was only after passing his A Levels with unexpectedly high grades that he decided to pursue a long-held dream of becoming a criminal barrister, and so he left London and moved to Scotland to study Law at The University of Dundee.

Career

Legal career

Returning to London aged 21, Tony has lived in the Capital ever since. It was in London that Tony qualified as a criminal barrister at the age of 22, the capacity in which he has since practised for almost two decades.

A regular in Crown Courts across both the South-East of England and nationwide, including the world famous Old Bailey - officially known as The Central Criminal Court - Tony spent the first 13 years of his career as first a pupil at and then a member of The Chambers of William Clegg QC, 2 Bedford Row. Regarded as England's pre-eminent criminal barristers' chambers, it was during his time there that Tony achieved the distinction of being ranked as a 'Leader In His Field' in both criminal and sports law.

Tony's case history includes prosecuting and defending in many high-profile, nationally reported criminal trials. Since 2008 he has acted exclusively for the defence in allegations of murder, armed robberies, multi-million pound frauds and in respect of all other serious criminal prosecutions. He has also defended a wealth of famous sportsmen and women in respect of both their 'on-field' and 'off-field' legal issues

With his legal career taking up all of his available time, in 2012 Tony made the decision to leave 2 Bedford Row in order to assist with the set-up of a criminal solicitors firm in Westminster, and as the same time he established his own independent Chambers on the same premises. His reason for doing this was to allow himself to have more control over his practice and therefore create to create for himself time in which to pursue his writing ambitions, and it was this that led to the completion of his first book, 'Killer Intent'.

Despite the publication and success of first 'Killer Intent' and now 'Marked For Death', Tony continues to practice in both criminal law and sports law, specialising still in the defence of serious and complex criminal allegations.

Writing career

Tony's desire to write began in his late teens. First inspired by the book 'The Winner' by American novelist David Baldacci, Tony began to read everything he could in the thriller genre and soon harboured an ambition to emulate his favourite author, who was also a lawyer and writer.

He had the idea for 'Killer Intent' and his recurring heroes Joe Dempsey and Michael Devlin shortly before he began his pupillage at 2 Bedford Row, at which time he wrote the first four chapters of the book. Unfortunately he then found his legal career to be all encompassing and he did not return to the 'Killer Intent' for over a decade. When he did, however, he quickly made the decision to leave Chambers and create time in which he could pursue a writing career.

In line with so many other authors' stories, upon completing 'Killer Intent' Tony struggled to find an agent or a publisher for a number of years. It was only when he was introduced to the CEO of Elliott and Thompson Books during an 'afternoon off' that he finally found someone willing to take a chance on an untested writer, and the 'Killer Intent' series took life.

Since that time Tony has published two books - 'Killer Intent' in 2018 and 'Marked For Death' in 2019 - and is currently finishing work on Book Three, to be published in 2020. In total Tony and Elliott and Thompson will release at least eight books in the 'Killer Intent' series.

In addition to the books themselves, the rights to the ongoing 'Killer Intent' series were purchased by Liberty Films - an independent production company owned by BAFTA Award winning director Duncan Jones and his producer/partner Stuart Fenegan - who, along with Tony, are currently adapting the first book as the opening season of an ongoing Devlin/Dempsey TV Series

Sports

In addition to being an experienced criminal barrister, Tony is also a former champion boxer, having competed internationally at heavyweight and won a host of domestic amateur championships over a 12 year career in the sport. He is also a former rugby player. These days he avoids most activities that would involve breaking into a run, although he still tries to say fit through weight-lifting and putting in the rounds on the heavy bag.

Personal life

Tony is married to Victoria and they have one son - Joseph - and a jack russell terrier named Maximus.

They live in Buckinghamshire.

References

This article "Tony Kent" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Tony Kent. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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