Seth Hunter is the pseudonym of the author of a number of highly acclaimed and prize-winning adult and children's novels, Paul Bryers.
He is the author of a series of critically-acclaimed novels set during the Wars with Revolutionary France and featuring Nathan Peake.
Previous novels, written under his own name, include The Used Women's Book Club, Prayer of the Bone, In a Pig's Ear, The Adultery Department and Coming First, all published by Bloomsbury in the UK. He was the winner of a British Arts Council Award for Best First Novel and In a Pig's Ear was named as one of the Guardian's six Best Novels of the Year.
The Mysteries of the Septagram is his first series of novels for children and young adults. The first, Kobal, was published by Hodder Children's Books in 2008 and long-listed for the Waterstone's Book of the Year Award. It was followed by Avatar in 2009 and the third Abyss will be published in 2010.
He has written, produced and directed many historical films and series for television including Nelson's Trafalgar which was a finalist for the Grierson Award for outstanding British documentaries; the four-part Queen Victoria's Empire for PBS which won the outstanding achievement award in the 2002 New York Film Festival; Murder at Canterbury for BBC-2 about the life and violent death of Thomas Becket; Harem for Channel Four about the life and power of women in the Ottoman seraglio; and The Line in the BAFTA-nominated Seven Wonders of the Industrial World series for BBC-2 about the building of the world's first transcontinental railroad, across the United States in the 1860s.
He was born in Liverpool and educated at Quarry Bank Comp and Southampton University where he took combined honours in modern history, politics and economics. He joined the Mirror group training scheme for journalists and worked on the Mirror for two years before moving into television as a reporter and presenter for Southern ITV and then as a producer and director.
He has produced and directed documentaries in many parts of the world and was deputy editor and series director of Channel Four's The Shape of the World and A Week in Politics.
He has taught creative writing to MA level at the Universities of Winchester and Bath Spa and is a member of PEN and the Society of Authors. Literary agents are James Gill and Rosemary Canter of United Agents _ and for Film and Television: Norman North at The Agency.