He is the author of the bestselling novel Yardie (1992), which gained cult status upon publication and "heralded a new wave of black British pulp fiction".
Born in Jamaica, Headley came to live in London at the age of 12[2] and after leaving school had a variety of jobs, from market stallholder to songwriter/band member, journalist to hospital courier.
Headley's attempts to write a screenplay became his first novel, Yardie, which describes the life of a Jamaican courier carrying cocaine from Jamaica to London.
The book helped to launch X Press, a black-owned publishing company co-founded in 1992 by Dotun Adebayo and Steve Pope.
In 2017, actor Idris Elba announced the book as the vehicle for his directorial debut, with Aml Ameen starring as the main character "D".