About Ben (B J Mears)

Ben first began writing high fantasy as a hobbyist, later working on a series of early-medieval whodunits before self-publishing the YA Tyler May Series. His passion for fiction embraces crime, detective, historical, speculative and fantasy genres. Ben admires many authors’ works, but among them cites a few influencers as Patrica Cornwell, Ellis Peters, Bernard Cornwell, Stephen King, Frank Peretti, Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien, Ian Banks, Umberto Eco, John Wyndham and Jonathan Stroud. Please note, Ben is not necessarily in agreement with these authors’ world views, moral or otherwise. In addition to his role as an author, Ben is a songwriter, illustrator and graphic designer. Based in the south west of England, he is married and has three daughters. As a visiting author, he runs creative writing workshops in secondary schools and academies. The Banyard & Mingle Mysteries were his first novels to be traditionally published (see bjmears.com or banyardandmingle.com) In 2025, Ben signed a deal with fantasy and sci-fi publisher Wizard’s Tower Press for his forthcoming, dystopian novel, The Jicker Man.