The Chair Man

From Adland to Thrill Country: How Alex Pearl Swapped 30-Second Commercials for Heart-Pounding Fiction

Before he was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, novelist Alex Pearl spent his entire career as an advertising copywriter in London. In advertising, you learn the art of brevity—telling a gripping story in 30 seconds flat. Now, Pearl is bringing that exact level of precision, punch, and pacing to the literary world.

His gripping psychological thriller, The Chair Man, centers on Michael Hollinghurst, a corporate lawyer whose life changes forever following the 7/7 London bombings. Left paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, Michael takes a reckless, dangerous path to seek retribution online.

From the inside out, the book is a masterclass in tension. The striking, high-contrast cover art—designed and photographed by John Mac—perfectly captures the stark, dark themes of the narrative. It proves that when a seasoned copywriter turns to fiction and teams up with great visual artists, every element hits like a bullet.

Exhibition

A couple of the exhibited images.

Exhibition

Thank you to all that attended my exhibition at Gramercy Park Studios, it was a great evening and nice to see some old faces. Those that could not make the 17th March apologies it was for one evening only but we all rasied a glass or two to you all.

Sleeping with the Blackbirds

Original photograph

This is the front cover I photographed for Alex Pearl’s teen novel, ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds’. The book is a dark, comic tale that comes with a hefty dose of magic realism, so I wanted to create a stylish and moody cover that conveyed something of the fantastical, dream-like nature of the narrative. The shot was taken on Hampstead Heath, which features in the story. I also arranged and oversaw the design of the typography, which was hand drawn by Lyndon Povey. The book is published by Indepenpress and was launched at Waterstones.

Diabetes UK Campaign

These pieces formed the front and reverse of a DM piece, along with the cover to a welcome pack, which sat inside. Diabetes UK is the largest charity devoted to Diabetes in the country, and its network of over 300,000 individuals who campaign, help and provide services for all those directly affected by the disease, forms the core of the charity. Diabetes UK raises more than £7 million every year for research and wanted its marketing to reflect the serious nature of this contribution. Until now the charity had relied on a variety of photo library shots. So here was an opportunity to raise the bar and provide a consistent and professional look across all its marketing material.