Ben Shepherd

Ben Shepherd is one of the UK’s leading experts on politics and conflict in Central Africa. A former research specialist for the Foreign Office, he is currently a Fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House and a freelance consultant. Born and brought up in South London, where he lives with his wife and daughter, he spends a lot of his time running and cycling around London’s forgotten corners thinking up stories.  

Forthcoming publication:

BLOOD DRUNK will be published by Macmillan (UK) and Grand Central (US) in September 2026. 

The novel introduces a new kind of vampire hunter in former South London gangster Freddie Burns, and joins him on a pub crawl through a gritty, magical underworld that's both beguiling and deadly.

Freddie Burns just wants ten pints, a spot of football violence, and to take over his uncle’s fading South London crime business. But when a gangland execution goes wrong, Freddie discovers a new kind of organized crime—one where vampires are spine-breakingly real and monsters hide just out of sight.

Good thing Freddie has a supernatural gift for giving vampires a kicking—them and anyone else that looks at him funny.

Dragged into a world of shadowy organizations, secret sorcerous pacts, gruesome vampire initiations, and a plot to rule it all, Freddie realizes it’s up to him to save the world – or at least not wreck it entirely. He just needs a drink and a smoke first.