Martina Cole

Cole's latest book, No Mercy, will be published in autumn 2019.

Cole was brought up in Aveley, Essex. As of 2015 she has released twenty-two novels about crime, most of which examine London's gangster underworld. Four of her novels, Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. She has achieved sales of over fourteen million in the UK alone and her tenth novel, The Know, spent seven weeks on The Sunday Times hardback best-sellers list.

Cole lives in a Grade II listed, 15th-century manor house near Sevenoaks, Kent. She also has a house in northern Cyprus.

In 2014 she appeared in a documentary about Holloway Prison, called Inside Holloway.

In December 2011, readers using madaboutbooks.co.uk voted their favourite Martina Cole book. The Take won by 780 votes and was put at the top of the list of Martina Cole novels. Goodnight Lady came second, followed in third by Maura's Game.

In March 2011 The Runaway, was shown on Sky1 and Sky1 HD. It is based on Cole's 1997 novel of the same name.

In 2011 Cole founded her own record label, Hostage Music. The London-based band Alabama3 has signed up to the label.

Three of Cole's novels have been adapted for the stage by the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London: Two Women in 2010; The Graft in 2011, and Cole's first novel, Dangerous Lady in 2012.

Cole filmed an investigative documentary, Martina Cole Girl Gangs: Los Angeles for Sky1 in 2009. This focused on the role of girls in these gangs, which have been responsible for crimes ranging from drug dealing and car theft, to robbery and murder.

In 2008 Martina Cole presented a drama documentary series on ITV3 called Martina Cole's Lady Killers, which told the story of six of history's most notorious female serial killers, including Myra Hindley, Beverly Allitt and Rose West. Cole explored the reasons why women kill, and why society is surprised when they do. Each programme told the story of an individual killer with expert analysis and dramatic reconstruction. The programme proved to be a ratings hit for ITV3 and transferred to ITV1 in 2009.

Additionally, she has appeared on ITV's This Morning, The Crime Thriller Club, The Wright Stuff for Channel 5, ITV's popular daytime show Loose Women, The One Show for BBC One, and a 2004 edition of The Culture Show.

A four-part TV adaptation of Dangerous Lady was broadcast on ITV in 1995, and in 1998 Sky1 broadcast a four-part adaptation of The Jump. The Take was serialised on British television on Sky1 in June 2009, which starred Tom Hardy as Freddie. Sky1 has also commissioned an adaptation of The Graft, which has yet to go into production.

Cole's breakthrough came in 1991, when her manuscript for Dangerous Lady was accepted by the literary agent Darley Anderson and sold for a record £150,000. The book was published by Headline the following year.

She remarried in the 1990s, but the marriage ended in divorce. She had her second child, Freddie Mary, when she was 39.

Martina Cole (born Eilidh Martina Cole, on 30 March 1959) is a British crime writer, businesswoman and occasional television presenter.