James McClure was born and raised in South Africa and educated in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, at Scottsville School (1947–51), Cowan House (1952–54), and Maritzburg College (1955–58).
After the birth of his first son, he moved to Britain with his family in 1965, where he joined the Scottish Daily Mail as a sub-editor.
McClure also wrote a spy novel set in Southern Africa – Rogue Eagle – which won the 1976 CWA Silver Dagger, a number of short stories, and two large non-fiction works that won wide acclaim: Spike Island: Portrait of a Police Division (Liverpool) and Copworld: Inside an American Police Force (San Diego).
He was promoted to editor of the Oxford Mail in 2000, and spent the next three years on a variety of objectives to enhance the quality and revenue of the county's daily paper.
He was working on a novel set in Oxford and had just started his own blog when he came down with a respiratory illness and died on 17 June 2006.