The son of two painters, Paul Willetts is the U.K.-based author of five narrative nonfiction books. Since making his debut with Fear and Loathing in Fitzrovia (2003), Paul has published North Soho 999 (2007), Members Only (2010), Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms (2015), and King Con (2018). His books have been praised by a wide range of people within the arts, among them the movie director Edgar Wright, the actor/comedian Steve Coogan, the writer/actor Mark Gatiss, the biographer Richard Holmes, as well as the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing
Paul’s third book, Members Only, was adapted into a £22 million movie entitled The Look of Love (2013), starring Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, and Stephen Fry. The film features a cameo appearance by Paul, ironically cast as the self-appointed moral guardian, Lord Longford.
Besides writing nonfiction books, Paul has put together and provided introductions to four enthusiastically reviewed paperback selections from the work of the novelist and Soho dandy, Julian Maclaren-Ross (1912-64). These are Bitten by the Tarantula, the Collected Memoirs, Selected Stories, and Selected Letters.
In addition, Paul has conceived, written, and worked as a photographer on Teenage Flicks, a jokey stocking-filler volume about the football game, Subbuteo. The book features reminiscences by a wide range of people, including the former England manager Graham Taylor, the former Labour Party spin doctor Alastair Campbell, and the writer and TV presenter David Baddiel. Click here if you’d like to look at some of the book’s photographs, which try to mimic the way that kids play with toys, their imaginations transforming little plastic figures into real people.
As well as producing books, Paul has worked as a movie script consultant, a book editor, an occasional teacher of creative nonfiction, and a contributor to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He has also written journalism for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement, B.B.C. History Magazine, History Today, and other publications.