Get Some

I wrote ‘Clipped’ really just as something for myself which I never expected many people to read. I was taken aback by the response to it. I didn’t think many people would read it, let alone buy it, as it was something I had done to keep me busy when I had a wee bit of a troublesome time in my life. So, after a while I thought 'Hmm, maybe I can do another one', but this time I really wanted to try harder. Not that I didn’t with ‘Clipped’, it’s just the first book was very...well … ‘laddy’ to say the least - a book for the lads, a book for the rogues from a rogues point of view, although I did have a few females who liked it....a few. : ) Anyway, I was looking for a subject matter to write about and one thing which was close to my heart was watching our amazing troops, what they go through...for us. Now I don’t know enough about what it takes to be a soldier etc., how could I? Only the brave people who do such a job have that insight. That took me to a friend I spoke to online. He shared many things with me. I was fascinated, in awe, amazed. The thing was I still felt like I needed to write some good old gangster shit. I love it and I have quite a bit of it I have to get out there on paper. So I thought ' What the hell, I'll just mix the two'. I watched a really old movie called 'Angels with Dirty Faces' a few days later, and that inspired me to write about the friendship between Joey and Tommy, and how sometimes one person can go one way, one another, and how that can turn out to be tragic. ‘Friendship’ is a term I think people use too loosely. ‘Love’ also is a term I think people float around without much thought (which maybe a good thing). But my take on it is this: we all have mates / buddies, workmates, mates at the gym, mates at clubs, but how many mates / buddies are friends? You see a mate and friend are two completely different things. When you have a friend, it is a gift in my eyes, and to quote Joey’s mother out of my book. I agree that ' friends are God’s way of taking care of us'. I’d really like to think that is true. So I wrote a tale about friendship in a time of stress because, after all, that is when it is truly tested. So I would say in a nutshell that ‘Get Some’ is about love and loss...with some good old gritty gangster shit and a few bullets thrown in for good measure. Hope you enjoy! - Danny Birch : D

For me at least, and I think it spreads far wider than me judging by the fan club he marches around with, Danny Birch is a phenomenon.

He writes in a style I have never seen before but which I expect to see copied regularly in the future.

He is a sort of Nick Hornby of the Facebook / Twitter generation, a gifted buddy-novelist with a sure-fire grasp of storyline and character and an uncanny way of whispering his words intimately into your ear in a way that keeps you chuckling with the humour and pleasure of it all.

Like Nick, he also opens up new literary markets, appealing to people who would rarely pick up a book of whatever shape, size or content. We sometimes joke about 'Danny's Army' but not too disrespectfully because Danny's Army comes mostly from the, er, British Army, the initial context for his new gangster thriller 'Get Some'.

At the heart of the book there is a close boyhood friendship between the orphan Tommy, who joins the army and several related rackets, and the lawyer Joey. Tommy is betrayed by his former criminal and army colleague, Trigg, captured by an Iraqi dissident group and tortured. In the meantime, Joey makes the acquaintance of the icy local gangster Mr. Valukana. Queue a very nasty shoot-out when Tommy escapes his captors and teams up with his mate Joey.

If the book stopped there, it would be a sharply told, wryly observed, punchy street gangster novel. However, this time around Danny goes a step further. He develops two exceedingly attractive and sympathetic female characters - Emma, Tommy's pregnant girlfriend, and her friend Sarah - both of whom add warmth and anxiety into the narrative. He also tells the story from several different points of view, a trick which is exceptionally difficult to pull off while keeping the reader fully engaged and yet which he achieves apparently naturally and effortlessly.

Some day soon Danny will be one of Britain's top novelists, and 'Get Some' shows why.

• Daniel Birch profile