Paul Stenning

Paul David Stenning (born 12 June 1976) is an English author, poet, interviewer and ghostwriter. He has written twenty-five books, of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and biography. The best-known of his books is The Robert Pattinson Album, a biography of Robert Pattinson, first published in 2009 and appearing in seven languages since then.^[1] According to WorldCat Stenning has released 25 works through 91 publications in 7 languages.^[2]

Early life

Stenning was born in Brighton in East Sussex. His family moved to Manchester when he was eight years old.^[3] He wanted to be a writer from the age of four.^[4] His primary school teacher remarked that he would be a writer at the same age.^[5] Stenning attended Urmston Grammar School amongst others, including Bury Church of England High School. He did not attend college or university. Despite early encouragement at school, Stenning is a mostly autodidactic writer.^[6]

Career

Stenning wrote poetry through his late teens and submitted his first poem in late 1999, which was published as part of an anthology titled Magical Memories, a year later.^[7] During this time he worked with Take That and Peter Kay.^[8]

Stenning has said music was his first love and he wrote music reviews for fun during his teens.^[3] In the mid-1990s he submitted reviews to Metal Hammer where he soon became a regular contributor. He has also written for Rolling Stone, FHM, Front and the Cyprus Weekly.

He has conducted hundreds of interviews including Meat Loaf, Pete Best, Bruce Dickinson, Alice Cooper, Steve Guttenberg, Kathy Sledge, Peter Steele, John Myatt and Linda Hamilton. Stenning's interviews often run over the allotted time allowed. He spoke to Peter Steele and Leslie Easterbrook for almost 3 hours despite an interview restriction of an hour. Easterbrook told Stenning he asks "great questions".^[7][9][10] In 2006, Stenning interviewed Steven Adler live onstage at The Cavern Club in Liverpool.^[11][12]

Stenning's work on Guns N' Roses was cited as the most accurate book on the band by guitarist Slash.^[13][9]

Since 2009 Stenning has worked primarily as a ghostwriter, working with Patty Schnyder, Jason Newsted, Frank Abagnale, Tomáš Berdych, Slash, Steven Adler, Margaret Nolan, Adam Dubin,^[14] U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted Fugitives Jody K Thompson^[9] and British champion wrestler Ray Robinson.^[15][16]

In 2013 Stenning released Success - By Those Who've Made It, which featured Mario Andretti, Jörgen Elofsson, Ching He Huang, Cherie Lunghi, Roy 'Chubby' Brown, Greg Merson, Susan Polgar, Phil Gallagher aka Mister Maker and Penelope Spheeris.^[17] After the book was released, Stenning gave talks on success at corporate events, festivals and schools.^[18]

He is working on biographies of Archbishop Makarios III and Jayne Mansfield, which he considers "labours of love".^[9]

Stenning's books have been released in multiple languages with several titles in Bulgarian, Polish and Portuguese.^[19][20]

He currently serves as the official poet for the tourist board of Guinea-Bissau.^[21]

Former Managing Director of Virgin Books, KT Forster, has described Stenning as a polymath and a ghostwriting chameleon.

Personal life

Stenning has a wife and daughter. He travels around the world to ghostwrite and is based in the United States and Cyprus.^[22] He is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.^[23]

Bibliography

References

External links

• Official website