Orlando Murrin
Novelist, Non-fiction writer
About
Orlando Murrin is a food writer, editor and author of two acclaimed crime novels, Knife Skills for Beginners and Murder Below Deck. Introducing sometime chef and reluctant sleuth Paul Delamare, Knife Skills was shortlisted for four national awards, including the inaugural McDermid Debut award, and Crime Fiction Lover and Fingerprint awards.
Before writing fiction, he was a magazine journalist and editor of Woman & Home and BBC Good Food; in 2004 he founded Olive. He has also written six cookbooks, including A Table in the Tarn, a recipe-memoir about his experience of setting up a hotel in rural France, and the popular Two’s Company series. For five years he was President of the Guild of Food Writers and in 2025 received its highest accolade, its outstanding achievement award. He writes regularly for Waitrose Weekend, the Times and Telegraph.
Orlando’s interest in crime and murder was sparked by his grandfather, who was a Met detective and later a crack interrogator for MI5. After reading English at Cambridge, his first job was as classical music sub-editor at Radio Times; he’s also worked as an advertising copywriter, restaurant pianist and chef. He has taught courses in fiction and memoir writing for the Arvon Foundation and National Trust and has a diploma in coaching and mentoring from the Institute of Counselling.
He lives in Exeter with his husband and two cats. When he’s not plotting his next murder mystery or devising new recipes, he tends his guerrilla garden, and practises Chopin studies and copperplate handwriting.