About Brian Finney

Brian Finney, a professor of English, has published seven non-fiction books on subjects ranging from a biography of Christopher Isherwood (awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Book Prize for the best work of non-fiction in 1979) to Terrorized: How the War on Terror Affected American Culture and Society, published on Amazon’s Kindle in 2011 and as a paperback in 2018. In 2019 he  published his first novel, Money Matters, an unconventional detective novel in which a woman with no experience uncovers the whereabouts of a missing person with connections to the powerful CEO of a mutual fund company, a politician running for governor in California, and a drug cartel. Money Matters was released on August 22, 2019. In 2021 he published his second novel, Dangerous Conjectures, a novel featuring a couple living in the Bay Area whose lives are threatened by the spread of the coronavirus and the rise of conspiracy theories. His third novel, Only the Rich, is waiting a final edit. It traces the changing dynamics between a hedge fund manager and a homeless woman who becomes his housekeeper.

Born in London, he obtained a BA at Reading University and a Ph.D. at the University of London. He spent three years as an officer in the Royal Air Force and five years in management at Joseph Lucas Electrical and Standard Telephones and Cables. In 1964 he transferred to the University of London where he taught and organized courses in the arts for its Department of Extra-Mural Studies.

In 1987 he emigrated to Southern California. After two years as a Visiting Professor in English at the University of California, Riverside and subsequent adjunct positions at UCLA and the University of Southern California, he became a full-time professor at California State University, Long Beach, where he is currently a Professor Emeritus in the Department of English.

He is married to fine art photographer J.K. Lavin and lives in Venice, California.