Lloyd Markham was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moving to and settling in Bridgend, south Wales when he was thirteen. He spent the rest of his teen years having bad and strange nights out before undertaking a BA in Writing at Glamorgan (now USW) followed by an MPhil. Lloyd started writing Bad Ideas Chemicals in his freshman year when Bridgend was in the tabloids for suicides and everyone was telling rotten jokes. A similar vein of despairing charcoal black gallows humour runs through this nightmarish social satire which in 2018 was both shortlisted for Wales Book of The Year and won a Betty Trask Award. Lloyd enjoys Japanese animation and operates synthesisers in a band called Deep Hum. He has less bad nights out these days.

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