Bryan (or BJ as he likes to be called) Holmes started writing seriously in the 1950s, but it was only in the mid-1970s that he turned to the western. "The odd thing is I'd never read a western until I'd written my first. Of course, I've read many since - either to see how others do it or to read the books of writer-friends - but I originally fell into the genre quite by accident." After The Avenging Four was accepted for publication, Bryan never looked back.

He wrote westerns under his own name and also five pen-names: J William Allen, Ethan Wall, Charles Langley Hayes, Sean Kennedy and Jack Darby.

Of his fifty books, eleven so far have been, or are being, re-issued as e-books. Alongside the Piccadilly entries (Shatterhand series) publishers Robert Hale have issued his GUNSMOKE IN VEGAS as an e-book which is now available on Amazon under his J WILLIAM ALLEN nom-de-plume. "GUNSMOKE IN VEGAS is the closest I ever got to the big screen," BJ said. "On its first publication a smidgeon of interest was shown from a relevant quarter in its movie potential but it soon dissipated. Anyway, readers can decide for themselves whether or not GUNSMOKE IN VEGAS would have made a good movie."

Old Shatterhand, the friend and blood-brother of Winnetou, the chief of the Mescalero Apaches, was a fictional character created by German writer Karl May (1842-1912). B.J. Holmes revived him for two epic westerns, A Legend Called Shatterhand and Shatterhand and the People. Real-life historical characters turn up throughout the narratives and Shatterhand's west has an undeniable ring of authenticity to it.

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