Charles Lambert

Charles Lambert was born in the United Kingdom but has lived in Italy for most of his adult life. Any Human Face (Picador), his second novel, is the first of a trilogy based on life in modern-day Rome, ranging from the world of politics and corruption to that of juvenile prostitution. The Bookbag has called it "a page-turning crime drama". For Scott Pack, it's a "cracking literary thriller from one of the most consistently interesting writers around at the moment". The second novel in the trilogy, The View from the Tower, was published by Exhibit A in January 2014. A memoir, With a Zero at its Heart, was published by The Friday Project in May 2014.

His first novel, Little Monsters, was published in 2008. For Good Housekeeping, Little Monsters was 'a haunting novel'. Time Out commented: 'Lambert reads like a writer at the height of his powers rather than one just starting out', while the Daily Mail said the novel was 'beautifully written, and more compelling than many thrillers'.

A collection of prize-winning stories, called The Scent of Cinnamon, was also published in 2008. Moira Crone, in the Short Review, had this to say about the collection: 'Though his strongest theme is love that transcends, all of his tales carry us to new levels sometimes heights, sometimes depths - as they uncover secrets that have been lying in wait throughout, just outside our original, usually conventional, conceptions. Lamberts steady genius is his technique. As his stories close, you can almost hear a magicians, voila.