W.A.Harbinson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1941. He went to live in England at 17, then emigrated to Australia at 19, serving for six years in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Returning to England, he lived in London for twenty years, spent a few years in Paris, but now lives in West Cork, Ireland.

Harbinson began his literary career with a series of potboiler paperbacks published in Sydney, Australia between 1967-69. His first serious novel, published when he had left Australia and settled in London, was a World War II epic, INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH (1973), entitled NONE BUT THE DAMNED in the US. Being a paperback original, the novel received few reviews, though on the cover of the US edition, bestselling novelist Robin "The French Connection" Moore hailed it as "The greatest war novel since Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead". This was followed by an avant garde novel, KNOCK (1975), described in the Foreword by Colin Wilson as a work that "belongs to an Irish tradition that runs from Charles Lever and Samuel Lover, down through Joyce, Beckett and Donleavy".

Harbinson then proceeded to write in a more commercial vein. He is the author of over fifty novels, including his bestselling "high tech/science fiction thriller" epics, GENESIS (1980) and REVELATION (1982). The original GENESIS was then used as the basis for his 5-volume "Projekt Saucer" series, which includes, in sequence, INCEPTION, PHOENIX (nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, 1995), GENESIS, MILLENNIUM and RESURRECTION, all published in Great Britain by New English Library. Though the series remained in print for most of the 1990s, only volumes 1 (INCEPTION) and 3 (GENESIS) were published in the United States. A Spanish-language edition of GENESIS was published successfully by Circulo de Lectores in 2004.

Harbinson’s decade of UFO research for the "Projekt Saucer" series was used as the basis for his non-fiction book, PROJEKT UFO: THE CASE FOR MAN-MADE FLYING SAUCERS, published in hardback and paperback by Boxtree, London, in 1996.

Harbinson then launched Bloomsbury Books’ highly successful series of "22 Books" SAS novels, writing twelve books for the series under the pen-name of Shaun Clarke; he then went on to a separate, successful career as an SAS thriller writer, producing novels for Hodder Headline and Simon & Schuster.

Harbinson is also the author of various biographical works, including a US Number 1, million-selling biography of ELVIS PRESLEY, plus biographies of CHARLES BRONSON, GEORGE C.SCOTT and EVITA PERON. The latter reached the Number 6 position in The Times ‘Top Ten Movie and TV Tie-ins’ listing of October 1996. It was also published with great success by St. Martin’s Press, New York.

In 2005 Harbinson self-published his autobiography, THE WRITING GAME:RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OCCASIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR, as a POD book, released through Amazon's BookSurge. This was followed by his travel memoir, ALL AT SEA ON THE GHOST SHIP (2005), a reprint of his bestseller REVELATION (2006), and a new novelette, INTO THE WORLD OF MIGHT BE (2008), all released through BookSurge and available only on the Internet.

Harbinson’s early Australian novel, THE RUNNING MAN, was turned into a feature film entitled THE CITY'S EDGE. His work for radio includes the science fiction play, ASTRONAUT, broadcast by the BBC in 1975, and a short story, FATHER AND SON, broadcast by BBC Ulster in 1999.

Apart from the production of POD editions of his own works, Harbinson is now virtually in retirement.

Novels

Writing as W. A. Harbinson.

Projeckt Saucer series

• Projekt Saucer I: Inception (1991)
• Projekt Saucer II: Phoenix (1995)
• Projekt Saucer III: Genesis (1980)
• Projekt Saucer IV: Millennium (1995)
• Projekt Saucer V: Resurrection (1999)

Other novels

• The Running Man (1969)
• Instruments of Death (1973)

(US title: None But the Damned)

• Knock (1975)
• Meat (1975)
• No Limit for Charlie (1977)
• The Oil Heist (1978)
• Strykers Kingdom (1979)
• Deadlines (1981)
• Revelation (1982)
• Otherworld (1984)
• The Light of Eden (1987)
• The Lodestone (1989)
• Dream Maker (1991)
• Departures (1996)
• The Crystal Skulls (1997)
• Eden (1998)
• Into the World of Might Be (2008)

Writing as 'Shaun Clarke'

• Behind Iraqi Lines: Soldier A SAS (1993)
• Heroes of the South Atlantic: Soldier B SAS (1993)
• Secret War in Arabia: Soldier C SAS (1993)
• Sniper Fire in Belfast: Soldier E SAS (1993)
• Guerrillas in the Jungle: Soldier F SAS (1993)
• The Desert Raiders: Soldier G SAS (1993)
• Counter-Insurgency in Aden: Soldier J SAS (1993)
• The Embassy Siege: Soldier L SAS (1994)
• Night Fighters in France: Soldier P SAS (1994)
• Death On Gibraltar: Soldier R SAS (1994)
• Into Vietnam: Soldier V SAS (1995)
• Terrorism On the North Sea: Marine A SBS (1995)
• The Headhunters of Borneo: Soldier H SAS (1994)
• The Exit Club (1996)
• SBS 3 Blitz Edition (1997)
• Dragon Light (1997)
• Underworld (1997)
• SAS 3-Blitz Edition (1997)
• Red Hand (1998)
• The Opium Road (1998)
• Operation Millennium (1999)
• Green Light (2000)
• Reverse Negative (2000)
• Night Rider (2001)

Non-fiction

Writing as 'W. A. Harbinson'

• Elvis Presley: an illustrated biography (1975)
• The Illustrated Elvis (1976)
• Bronson!: A biographical portrait (1976)
• Evita!: a legend for the seventies (1977)
• George C.Scott: The Man, the Actor and the Legend (1977)
• The Life and Death of Elvis Presley (1977)
• Growing up with the Memphis Flash (with Kay Wheeler) (1994)
• Projekt UFO: The Case for Man-Made Flying Saucers (1995)
• Evita: Saint or Sinner? (1996)
• The Writing Game: Recollections of an Occasional Bestselling Author (2005)
• All at Sea on the Ghost Ship (2005)