I’m a bit of a writer, me. In fact, you can’t shut me up. On one day when I was fourteen I wrote twenty-two letters – to multiple penpals, my best friend (who was sitting next to me at the time…), all my grandparents, and a boy I had my eye on.
I have moved on from epistolary stalking, and now focus most of my writing energies on financial crime, the discussion thereof. Over the years I have written dozens of books on money laundering (although, to be fair, it’s several editions of several titles – but hey, that counts). The first was “Money Laundering: A Training Strategy” (now sadly out of print), and the second was “The Money Laundering Officer’s Practical Handbook”. And then we have the two “pig in shades” series: AML guidance for non-executive directors in four specific jurisdictions and an international edition (links to the right and then down a bit → → → ↓), and AML guidance for staff in the regulated sector (covering four jurisdictions and four sectors in each). You see: obsessed.
And I also write a monthly column for Money Laundering Bulletin, the UK’s pre-eminent AML publication. I know: I would say that, wouldn’t I? But it is – mainly because the editor is nearly as obsessed with money laundering as I am, and really knows his stuff. He is also remarkably indulgent, and when I suggested a regular feature about the adventures of a Money Laundering Reporting Officer, he agreed – probably for a quiet life, but agreement is agreement. Edward Jones, MLRO-about-town, was born. And now he has become the e-MLRO-about-town, as I am publishing his adventures in serialised form (three at a time – if it was good enough for Dickens, it’s good enough for me) as an e-book. It’s called “Suspicious Activity”, and you can download it from Amazon (either the whole thing, or a free sample). It’s in Kindle format, but if you have an iPad or an iPhone or a Mac or a Windows PC, you can download free software to Kindle-ify your device – clever, these technical chaps.
In July 2013 I launched my series of historical crime novels and – would you believe it – they are about financial crime. “Fatal Forgery” (book one), “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat” (book two), “Worm in the Blossom” (book three), “Portraits of Pretence” (book four), “Faith, Hope and Trickery” (book five) and “Heir Apparent” (book six)are available as print-on-demand paperbacks and for the Kindle, while the first two have also been turned into audiobooks as well – again, links to the right → → →.
For a decade, ending in January 2017 with savage pre-Brexit, post-Trump budget cuts, I wrote a weekly column for my local newspaper, the Cambridge News. As “Susan in the City”, I opined each Monday about the joys and trials of living and working in Cambridge. I have now gathered my eighty favourite columns (out of 510) into a bright yellow book – again, link to the right → → →.
And in January 2020, to celebrate a quarter-century of working alone, I published “The Solo Squid: How to Run a Happy One-Person Business”. It is not a book about how to set up a one-person business, and it is especially not a book about how to expand that business to take on armies of staff and portfolios of premises: it is simply about how to run your business on your own and thrive on the experience. Once more, link to the right → → →.
I also write monthly letters to two prisoners, the newsletter for my local Neighbourhood Watch scheme, a menu to stick on the fridge and lots of lists – but you don’t need to know about all of that.
I hate money laundering 