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How
far would you say that crime fiction is a very convenient genre
which can be used to look at lots of different issues, usually the
darker side?
Yes,
I think that's right. People like a strong story and there's a feeling
that most contemporary fiction doesn't have much of a plot. That's
wrong because most books do, but there's an idea that they're going
to be difficult and inaccessible whereas crime does have a strong
plot so people find it very easy to get into it. There are different
themes, and in the case of Telling Tales the theme is the fictions
that we all create for ourselves to justify what we've done but
which we're also slightly ashamed of - the fictions we create to
explain ourselves or make ourselves more palatable to the rest of
the world. All the time we're working what we do into some sort
of story.
Do you think you have a sense of the dark side of things, the 'gothic'?
I don't
think so really. I was reading gothic novels for work at Huddersfield
- we work closely with Bagshaw Museum. The manager there used to
work at Haworth and does have a sense of the Brontes and the gothic.
He loves gothic novels so we decided to write one in a day! We had
about a dozen people and everybody brought a chapter along.
You've
done so many things and worked in so many different places, has
the experience you've gained from all of that helped in your writing?
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| Humber:
"I used to watch the pilot go out and pick up the huge
ships" |
Yes,
it must do. I'm fascinated with other people's working lives, it's
a sort of intense nosiness! I love it when it's the time of year
when it's getting dark but people still forget to close their curtains
and you can see glimpses of other people's lives. In Telling Tales
there's a Humber [river] pilot - I was just so fascinated about
that job. I used to stand on Spurn Point and watch the pilot launches
go out and they'd pick up the huge container ships. I was fascinated
about how it all worked and what happened. I got a lot of help from
a retired Humber pilot who was able to talk about it.
What
about the police? Have you had any advice from them?
I've
pretty much made it up as I've gone along! On a real police investigation
there's such a big team, and with the books I write it's very much
about the relationship between the central character and the suspects
- or possibly the central character and one sidekick. I know it's
not going to be particularly accurate. If there are some technical
details, then I can make use of the fact that I belong to the Crimewriters'
Association which has quite a few ex-cops as members. We meet up
and people like Peter Walker - who wrote the books on which Heartbeat
is based - are just really helpful. You can ring them up and ask,
'What would you really do in this situation?'
Earlier you mentioned another book you've already finished. What's
that all about?
Well,
I've just finished the first draft of a book set in Shetland which
I think will be called Fire And Ice. Perhaps it's because of the
landscape, but I think for this one I've been influenced by the
sparseness of some of the Norwegian writers like Karin Fossum. If
you're looking for a great Norwegian writer then there's also a
woman called Kjersti Scheen. In her book called Final Curtain she's
got a wonderful central character with a teenage kid who's much
more moral and upright than she is. She drinks too much vodka and
she's desperate for a bloke but it has a great sense of place. She's
a wonderful new Norwegian writer!
So
what's the theme for this book?
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| Shetland:
"It's a very closed community" |
It's
about outsiders. Shetland is a very closed community, so much so
that some of the people who have lived there for generations are
still outsiders. I lived on Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Isles,
for two years, two long seasons. I still have friends there and
go back. The book was started around New Year 2004 when we'd gone
up there just for a day to see these friends. We travelled overnight
on the boat from Aberdeen, 13 hours, and we just had a day before
coming back. It was wonderfully clear and it had snowed. It was
very white and there were no trees, part of the sea had frozen in
the inlets, the 'voes', and the black ravens were playing against
the snow. I thought that if you had the red of blood alongside the
snow you had the classic myths, all those classic stories like Snow
White and all that. And that's how it started.
The
BIG question: is it possible to make a living from being a crimewriter?
I'm
sure people do. I think we do better than poets. It's really a case
of 'just about'!
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