Former banker turns his hand to spy fiction set in the Black Country

A former banker from near Kinver has published the second book in a trilogy of spy thrillers featuring a working-class secret agent from the Black Country.

Chris Brown, who writes under the name CK Brown, has released The Ban Affair, the follow-up to his debut novel The Z Affair, which sold thousands of copies worldwide.

Set in 1972, the new book follows Philip Trent, a former soldier from Smethwick who has left the secret service to become a private detective on Bearwood Road.

But his new career is disrupted when a mysterious Hong Kong millionaire threatens to trigger a third world war.

Trent’s investigation takes him from Birmingham and the Black Country to London, Hong Kong, Budapest and Paris, with Stoke-on-Trent also featuring in the story.

Chris, who is in his 70s, said he wanted to create a spy hero with a different background from the characters traditionally found in British espionage fiction.

“There have been working-class spies before, but they’re usually Cockney. I don’t think there’s been a Black Country one,” he said.

“I wanted to give him a normal working-class background. A lot of the things that go on around him are quite normal, going to the pub, taking the dog for a walk, those sorts of things, and then there’s this fantastical adventure on top of that.”

Born in Handsworth and raised in Smethwick, Chris has lived in various parts of the Black Country and West Midlands before settling in the countryside near Kinver.

His career has included playing drums semi-professionally, working in the civil service and spending around 20 years in banking. After leaving banking in 1998, he established a commercial finance business, which he ran until retirement.

He began writing The Z Affair during the Covid lockdown, initially as a way to fill his time.

“I started fiddling around with the first book in lockdown, just to fill the time,” he said.

“When I retired, I finished it off and somebody said it wasn’t bad and that I should try to get it published, so I did.”

The early 1970s provides the backdrop for the novels, drawing on a period Chris remembers from his own life.

“1971 was when I left school and started work, so I wanted to set it in an era that I probably have rose-tinted memories of,” he said.

“I can still remember a lot of it and wanted to make it seem real, with the things that were on sale, the politics of the time and the world situation.”

A lifelong West Bromwich Albion supporter who first attended matches with his father more than 65 years ago, Chris said supporting the Baggies was one of the few things he shared with his fictional hero.

He is already working on the third book, which will complete the Philip Trent trilogy.

An audiobook of The Ban Affair is also in production, something that has particular personal meaning for Chris, whose mother and stepfather are both blind.

“Both my mother and my stepfather are blind now, so in a way this is for them because they obviously can’t read it at all,” he said.

The Ban Affair is published by Austin Macauley and is available through Amazon and Waterstones.