Taylor grew up in Yorkshire, but moved to London in the 1970s where he worked in the music industry with such bands as
The Stranglers,
Sex Pistols,
Elvis Costello, and
Adam and the Ants. He became involved in the
occult, and lived a life that was, in his own words "into all sorts of weird and wonderful things and wasn't leading a godly life". He then turned to
Christianity, and he later became a
vicar with the
Church of England. Taylor completed the manuscript of his first book,
Shadowmancer, which he self-published. Following its launch at Taylor's local bookshop, The Whitby Bookshop, the title garnered a publishing deal with
Faber & Faber in the UK and
G. P. Putnam's Sons in the United States for a further six novels, following which he resigned his position as parish priest. His second novel,
Wormwood, was nominated for a
Quill Award. His third novel,
Tersias was published in the UK in 2005. In August 2006, Faber published a follow-up to
Shadowmancer entitled
The Curse of Salamander Street. In October 2006, Taylor released
The Tizzle Sisters & Erik through
Markosia. A mixture of prose and graphic novel that he deemed an 'illustronovella', Taylor was joined on the book by collaborators
Tony Lee, Dan Boultwood, and
Harry Potter artist
Cliff Wright. He also contributed text to photographer Mark Denton's book on the Yorkshire coast. Taylor retired from writing in October 2009 in order to care for his daughter, who suffers from
Crohn's disease, although he went on to publish three more books in the years that followed. In 2010, the first book of
Vampyre Labyrinth series,
RedEye, was published. The story follows a young Jago, who is a evacuee from London in war with the Germans in 1940. He is sent to
Whitby, where he discovers a series of secrets and mysteries of vampyres. ==
Mariah Mundi film==