D.A. Holdsworth

D.A. Holdsworth entered adult life as a linguist and a student of French and German. After graduating, he took a detour into the world as finance, working as a trainee fund manager during a period that took in the bursting of the tech bubble and 9-11. After two turbulent years, he left to build a two-decade career in educational publishing, helping to create textbooks and online resources for maths and other subjects.

For years he resisted the call to writing, until in 2016 he gave in to the inevitable and started work on 'How to Buy a Planet'. Drawing on his experience of the tech crash and the credit crunch, 'How to Buy a Planet' is both a satire and an adventure. It tells the story of three flatmates' quest to rescue the Earth after it's been sold to a consortium of financiers from – shall we say – a long, long way away.

In April, 'How to Buy a Planet' was shortlisted for The Selfies Fiction Award 2021 for best self-published novel in the UK.