Career
He has also written scripts for Independent British comic books Previously Southwell worked as a journalist and as Director of Communications for the British Retail Consortium - before turning to full-time writing. In his role at the BRC, he regularly clashed with the British government"s media relations department, and pressure groups, and played a part in forcing Stephen Byers to scrap the Rip-Office Britain campaign.
In 2003, in a front page story in The Sunday Times Southwell, then a spokesman for the BRC, mentioned that MI5 was co-ordinating with the business community with regard to potential terrorism.
Many people in the conspiracy community believed that this was confirmation that he was allied with Secret Intelligence Service agents and may have been publishing disinformation on behalf of the British security services in his conspiracy books Southwell later reported in his own books that he had liaised with MI5 on anti-terrorism issues and with the United Kingdom Government"s emergency planning Cabinet Committee COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A).
He has acknowledged a specialist knowledge and ongoing interest in the Angry Brigade and conspiracies surrounding the events that inspired VALIS. A regular broadcaster in the United Kingdom and North America on the subjects of conspiracies and counter-culture, he jokingly claims on the back of his books that if he "dies a mysterious death it will be because he knows too much and has upset some very powerful people."
He wears an eye patch due to the loss of 80% of the sight in one eye. In early 2016 Southwell Appeared on the British Broadcasting Corporation quiz Pointless.
