Tonight will bring the U.S. TV debut of Thorne, a British-made adaptation of author Mark Billingham’s Detective Inspector Tom Thorne novels, starring David Morrissey.
When Thorne was shown on Sky1 in the UK last fall, it rolled out over six weekly episodes. However, premium channel Encore has scheduled the show to run just two nights. This evening’s presentation will be Thorne: Sleepyhead (an adaptation of Billingham’s first, 2001 Thorne book), while tomorrow night’s follow-up will be Thorne: Scaredy Cat. Omnimystery News has a description of each episode.
Both shows are set to begin at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
I don’t find anything online about Sky1 continuing Thorne beyond these first two adaptations. But Billingham dropped me a brief note this morning, in which he writes: “Hopefully, there will be more TV to come as the BBC here has optioned my earlier standalone, In the Dark, and the forthcoming standalone, Rush of Blood.”
It’s only too bad that I don’t subscribe to Encore TV, so will have to miss this week’s showing of Thorne. I see, though, that the mini-series is available in an all-regions Blu-ray set, so there’s an opportunity to appreciate it sometime in the near future.
READ MORE: “A Conversation with Mark Billingham,” by Michael Connelly (Mulholland Books); “A Conversation with Mark Billingham, Part II,” by Michael Connelly (Mulholland Books).
Showing posts with label Mark Billingham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Billingham. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Top Billingham
Euro Crime reports that Mark Billingham has won the 2009 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Death Message (Little, Brown, 2007), the seventh installment of his series featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne. This announcement came during the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, which is being held today through Sunday in Harrogate, England.
Death Message was one of 14 books shortlisted for the Old Peculier prize. The other nominees were: The Accident Man, by Tom Cain (Bantam Press); Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (Bantam Press); Gone to Ground, by John Harvey (Heinemann); Ritual, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press); The Garden of Evil, by David Hewson (Macmillan); A Cure for All Diseases, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins); The Colour of Blood, by Declan Hughes (John Murray); Dead Man’s Footsteps, by Peter James (Macmillan); Broken Skin, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins); Beneath the Bleeding, by Val McDermid (HarperCollins); Exit Music, by Ian Rankin (Orion); Friend of the Devil, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton); and Savage Moon, by Chris Simms (Orion).
Death Message has already been released in paperback in the UK. But it isn't due for its hardcover release in the States until October. Harper will be the publisher.
Death Message was one of 14 books shortlisted for the Old Peculier prize. The other nominees were: The Accident Man, by Tom Cain (Bantam Press); Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (Bantam Press); Gone to Ground, by John Harvey (Heinemann); Ritual, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press); The Garden of Evil, by David Hewson (Macmillan); A Cure for All Diseases, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins); The Colour of Blood, by Declan Hughes (John Murray); Dead Man’s Footsteps, by Peter James (Macmillan); Broken Skin, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins); Beneath the Bleeding, by Val McDermid (HarperCollins); Exit Music, by Ian Rankin (Orion); Friend of the Devil, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton); and Savage Moon, by Chris Simms (Orion).
Death Message has already been released in paperback in the UK. But it isn't due for its hardcover release in the States until October. Harper will be the publisher.
Labels:
Mark Billingham
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Murderous Tuition
Becky Fincham from British publisher Faber and Faber sent us this press release about an interesting opportunity for budding crime writers in the UK. Be aware, though, that space is strictly limited, so if you’re interested, don’t wait around.
Learn to Write Crime Fiction with Mark BillinghamFor more information and specifics about how to register, click here. There are openings for only 15 participants, so book soon. And tell them that The Rap Sheet sent you.
and Laura Wilson
Thursday 2 April to Sunday 5 April 2009
Jaffé & Neale Bookshop 1 Middle Row Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire OX7 5NH England
In a unique collaboration with award-winning independent bookshop Jaffé & Neale, the Faber Academy presents an intense four-day writing workshop with bestselling crime-writers Mark Billingham and Laura Wilson.
Set over four days in the upstairs gallery of Jaffé & Neale, a wonderful bookshop in the picturesque Cotswold town of Chipping Norton, Mark Billingham and Laura Wilson have devised a course that will suit beginners every bit as much as those with a good degree of experience. There will be sessions on character, plot, dialogue and of course those all-important twists that keep thriller readers turning the pages.
Suspects can expect plenty of lively discussion, inspiring writing exercises and one-on-one tutorials. They can expect surprises. They can also expect to have plenty of fun ...
The course includes:
• 4 days intensive tuition with Mark Billingham and Laura Wilson (10 a.m.-5 p.m.)
• A complimentary Moleskine® Notebook
• A daily artisan lunch
• Regular coffee breaks
• A Friday night reading in the bookshop by Mark Billingham and Laura Wilson, followed by a glass of wine
• A handy course pack including local hotel recommendations
• A special discount off Faber books purchased at www.faber.co.uk
Course cost: £500 / €630 (price inclusive of VAT)
Labels:
Laura Wilson,
Mark Billingham
Friday, February 27, 2009
Ripley, Believe It or Not
(Editor’s note: Tomorrow morning, February 28, the UK’s BBC Radio 4 will present “Looking for Ripley,” a half-hour special hosted by crime novelist Mark Billingham [In the Dark]. That show serves
as the introduction to a five-week-long serialized adaptation of all of Patricia Highsmith’s renowned Tom Ripley novels. “Looking for Ripley” will begin on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. GMT, but will also be available to listeners for a week thereafter on BBC iPlayer. Billingham’s presentation will be followed tomorrow by a one-hour dramatization of the first novel in Highsmith’s series, The Talented Mr. Ripley [1955], beginning at 2:30 p.m. GMT. Before “Looking for Ripley” debuts, The Rap Sheet asked Billingham for a preview of his thoughts about Highsmith and her creation. His response is featured below.)
It is virtually unprecedented for the BBC to be broadcasting adaptations of novels by the same author in five consecutive Saturday afternoon slots. Yet that is what it has chosen to do in the case of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels, and the documentary I am presenting serves as an introduction to these adaptations, examining in particular the enduring fascination for the character of Ripley. Fifty-five years after his creation, Ripley still exerts a powerful hold over a great many readers, is a model for writers hoping to create compelling antiheroes, and--as I found out during the program--is still used as a case study by the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists!
These five radio plays, in which the character of Tom Ripley will be portrayed by the brilliant Ian Hart, are, I think, a measure of the esteem in which Highsmith’s work has been held for many years. It is something of a shame that she was somewhat less appreciated when she was alive. This may have been because she was almost impossible to pigeonhole as a writer, but it was probably more to do with the fact that her books presented a version of suburban America that many readers found unpalatable. There was rarely a character to “root for” and if there was, it was usually a killer. Her fictional landscapes contained few, if any good people and the motives for the crimes in her tales were of far less importance than their consequences. She was interested in guilt and the switching of identity and rarely gave two hoots about anything approaching conventional justice. Her humor was savage and she used it to devastating effect, laying bare the sordid nature of the lives that lay behind the façade of American suburbia.
Highsmith longed to be loved, yet preferred animals to people. She was an American who yearned to be European. She was a woman who often bemoaned the fact that she had not been born a man and somewhere, from this tangle of contradictions and fury, she produced Ripley, one of fiction’s most enduring and ambiguous characters.
Tom Ripley--a man who is only truly alive when he is somebody else--is portrayed in the five novels very simply and absolutely without judgment. He kills because there is really nothing else he can do, and, as a reader, there is a real frisson in seeing him get away with it time and time again. You are drawn into Ripley’s world, compelled to empathize with him, and when you get close to this character--a psychopath who kills if there is a problem to be solved, who does not feel guilt in the same way as other people, who is not troubled by conscience or any other trappings of a conventional morality--it is hard not to feel a little (dare I say it?) jealous.
I went “looking for Ripley” by talking to many who had been close to him and his creator, including Highsmith’s biographer, Andrew Wilson, and the actor Jonathan Kent, who Highsmith herself said was the “perfect Ripley.” Did I find him? Well, I caught glimpses of him, and I certainly found out a lot more about Highsmith herself, who often signed herself “Tom” or “Ripley” and to whom her best-known character was unusually real. I discovered that dinner parties round at Pat’s could be unusual, to say the least, and that she often carried her beloved pet snails around in her bra.
As for Ripley himself ... well, I discovered that what he is truly talented at, is hiding.
READ MORE: “Happy Birthday, Mr. Ripley,” by James Campbell (The New York Times); “The Darkly Talented Patricia Highsmith,” by James Sallis (Los Angeles Times).
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It is virtually unprecedented for the BBC to be broadcasting adaptations of novels by the same author in five consecutive Saturday afternoon slots. Yet that is what it has chosen to do in the case of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels, and the documentary I am presenting serves as an introduction to these adaptations, examining in particular the enduring fascination for the character of Ripley. Fifty-five years after his creation, Ripley still exerts a powerful hold over a great many readers, is a model for writers hoping to create compelling antiheroes, and--as I found out during the program--is still used as a case study by the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists!
These five radio plays, in which the character of Tom Ripley will be portrayed by the brilliant Ian Hart, are, I think, a measure of the esteem in which Highsmith’s work has been held for many years. It is something of a shame that she was somewhat less appreciated when she was alive. This may have been because she was almost impossible to pigeonhole as a writer, but it was probably more to do with the fact that her books presented a version of suburban America that many readers found unpalatable. There was rarely a character to “root for” and if there was, it was usually a killer. Her fictional landscapes contained few, if any good people and the motives for the crimes in her tales were of far less importance than their consequences. She was interested in guilt and the switching of identity and rarely gave two hoots about anything approaching conventional justice. Her humor was savage and she used it to devastating effect, laying bare the sordid nature of the lives that lay behind the façade of American suburbia.
Highsmith longed to be loved, yet preferred animals to people. She was an American who yearned to be European. She was a woman who often bemoaned the fact that she had not been born a man and somewhere, from this tangle of contradictions and fury, she produced Ripley, one of fiction’s most enduring and ambiguous characters.
Tom Ripley--a man who is only truly alive when he is somebody else--is portrayed in the five novels very simply and absolutely without judgment. He kills because there is really nothing else he can do, and, as a reader, there is a real frisson in seeing him get away with it time and time again. You are drawn into Ripley’s world, compelled to empathize with him, and when you get close to this character--a psychopath who kills if there is a problem to be solved, who does not feel guilt in the same way as other people, who is not troubled by conscience or any other trappings of a conventional morality--it is hard not to feel a little (dare I say it?) jealous.
I went “looking for Ripley” by talking to many who had been close to him and his creator, including Highsmith’s biographer, Andrew Wilson, and the actor Jonathan Kent, who Highsmith herself said was the “perfect Ripley.” Did I find him? Well, I caught glimpses of him, and I certainly found out a lot more about Highsmith herself, who often signed herself “Tom” or “Ripley” and to whom her best-known character was unusually real. I discovered that dinner parties round at Pat’s could be unusual, to say the least, and that she often carried her beloved pet snails around in her bra.
As for Ripley himself ... well, I discovered that what he is truly talented at, is hiding.
READ MORE: “Happy Birthday, Mr. Ripley,” by James Campbell (The New York Times); “The Darkly Talented Patricia Highsmith,” by James Sallis (Los Angeles Times).
Labels:
Mark Billingham,
Patricia Highsmith
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Web of Criminality
Gavin Haycock, a Reuters reporter in London, provided some interesting insight this week in a piece on how the Web is becoming essential to crime-fiction writers.
Writers can find out about street layouts, building locations, or the latest in guns, poisons and nuclear bombs. They can also learn how victims would react to acid or bullets or being pushed from a helicopter.Billingham is far from the only fan of the Web, Reuters reports:
“I needed to find out what a body would look like if dug up from a shallow grave after three months,” said London-based crime writer Mark Billingham, who pens novels featuring detective Tom Thorne.
“Within about 10 minutes of searching, I was in touch with a forensic anthropologist news group in the States and got all manner of helpful stuff,” he said.
Lee Child, the British-born thriller writer based in New York whose novels follow the adventures of former U.S. military policeman Jack Reacher, found inspiration for his next book, due in 2009, while dabbling on the Internet.As valuable as Web-based resources can be, however, a little one-on-one time with experts in their field remains indispensable, says Billingham:
“I was just surfing the Web and came across some law enforcement sites where there was a list of visual indicators for recognising a suicide bomber,” said Child.
“I started this new book with the idea that my hero is on the subway in New York late at night and gazing at this person and realises that this hits 11 out of 11 on this list and what is he going to do about it,” he said. “It started just purely from some idle browsing on the Web.”
Established writers often like to get new ideas from face-to-face meetings with police and legal contacts, but that can be impossible for a writer who has yet to make it big.Read the full Reuters piece here.
Billingham says it was not until he had two published crime fiction books behind him that doors began opening to detectives, many of whom have become friends.
“For the first couple of books I was just ringing the press office and having to use the Internet. None of it can take the place of sitting down with a cop for half an hour,” he adds.
Labels:
Mark Billingham
Monday, November 26, 2007
Whew!
Back from a week away, visiting family and friends, I’m still trying to catch up with everything that happened during my mini-vacation. It’s usually the case that Thanksgiving
week is slower than molasses in the Yukon. But there was a lot going on over the last seven days to miss, and more matters of note since.
• Marcus Sakey’s first novel, The Blade Itself, made Esquire magazine’s list of the “Year’s 5 Best Reads.” Writes contributor T. Jefferson Parker:
• I was getting tired of my old computer wallpaper (tulips--yeah, I know, weak) so I was happy to find a pair of old paperback book-cover collages assembled by Bookgasm’s Bruce Grossman. One combines the fronts from works by Ellery Queen, Richard S. Prather, Mickey Spillane, and others. The second--which is the image I chose for my own screen--concentrates on Brett Halliday’s Mike Shayne novels, all of which were illustrated by the talented Robert McGinnis. You’ll find both desktop alternatives at The Big Adios.
• Barry Forshaw, author of The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction, provides the London Times with his list of “six American noir masters.” No real shockers here, although lumping David Goodis and Jim Thompson together with Ross Macdonald and Donald E. Westlake isn’t always done. (I wonder what distinction Forshaw makes between “noir” and “hard-boiled” fiction.) Meanwhile, Allan Guthrie (Hard Man) offers up his own “idiosyncratic” list of 200 noir novels, published between 1929 and 1997. Find Guthrie’s rundown here.
• How did I miss the memo about HarperCollins reissuing (in mass-market paperback size) Lawrence Block’s eight novels featuring sleepless spy Evan Tanner? Luckily, Bookgasm has been keeping up with the roll-outs. See here and here.
• While I was out of town, pseudonymous blogger CrimeFicReader continued collecting recommendations from noteworthy British and Irish crime writers of books that really ought to be placed in “the crime aficionado’s stocking” this Christmas. Since we last checked in, she’s added picks from Chris Ewan, Declan Burke, John Baker, Bernard Knight, Margaret Murphy, Steve Mosby, Brian McGilloway, Donna Moore, and our friend R.N. “Roger” Morris.
• Sad news comes from Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site: Peter Haining, a onetime reporter in Britain who went on to edit anthologies of fantasy, horror, and mystery fiction, died from a heart attack on November 19. He was only 67 years old. Kimura notes that Haining “wrote a number of books about Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Hercule Poirot,
Jules Maigret and pulps” (a list of his numerous works can be found here). But I remember Haining best for a wonderful overview of this genre’s development called The Classic Era of Crime Fiction. Shortly after the publication of that book in 2002, I remarked in The Rap Sheet:
UPDATE: UK novelist Martin Edwards has posted a short tribute to Haining in his blog, ‘Do You Write Under Your Own Name?’ You can find his contribution here.
• If you need an escape from the chill and psychological blues this winter, New York magazine recommends picking up a spy novel set in some distant corner of the planet. Among its 10 selections: The Midnight Choir, by Gene Kerrigan (Dublin, Ireland); Salamander Cotton, by Richard Kunzmann (South Africa); and Hidden Moon, by James Church (Pyongyang, North Korea). Read the whole list here.
• Novelist Richard Helms is back with the second edition of his crime-fiction Webzine, The Back Alley. Included this time are stories by Bryon Quertermous, Megan Powell, and Keith Gilman. There’s also a good chunk of Frank Norris’ “classic noir” tale, McTeague, which Helms promises will “be continued in the next issue.” Look for the full Back Alley contents here.
• Here’s an odd development. Reports the Associated Press:
• We’re very late to the party on this one, we know ... but writer-editor Anthony Neil Smith reports that the once-popular Webzine Plots With Guns, which posted its “final issue” at the end of 2004, “will go back online in the new year, as soon as I get enough good stories to fill an issue.” Smith adds:
• And British writer Mark Billingham (Death Message) is Angie Johnson-Schmit’s latest victim ... er, interviewee on the In for Questioning podcast. “In this episode,” she says, “Mark talks about his Tom Thorne police procedurals, his upcoming stand-alone novel, In The Dark, and the foreword he wrote for the fab anthology, Expletive Deleted. He also joins in the debate about genre vs. literary novels and how much sex/violence/cussin’ is too much. Find out what's on Mark’s iPod, the perks of mentioning favorite restaurants in your novels and what celebrities are reading his books.” Click here to listen in.
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• Marcus Sakey’s first novel, The Blade Itself, made Esquire magazine’s list of the “Year’s 5 Best Reads.” Writes contributor T. Jefferson Parker:
This book landed on my desk uninvited. With it was a letter from the book’s editor saying that he had never published a better debut crime novel. I looked at the stack of manuscripts sent to me for quotes. There were spiderwebs on them. I decided to read one page. Just one. Three hundred pages later I put it down. It’s smart, sad, relentless, and believable. It has style and attitude. I love Sakey’s Chicago. I love the way his characters fight the riptides of place and time that carry them so far from their good intentions. They remind me of people I’ve known.• Speaking of “best of the year” lists, we neglected to mention that San Francisco Chronicle crime-fiction critic Eddie Muller has published his list of 10 faves from 2007. They include Christine Falls, by the pseudonymous Benjamin Black; Queenpin, by The Rap Sheet’s own Megan Abbott; In the Woods, by Tana French; and one novel that caught me completely off-guard: De Niro’s Gate, by Beirut-born author Rawi Hage. You’ll find all of Muller’s picks here.
• I was getting tired of my old computer wallpaper (tulips--yeah, I know, weak) so I was happy to find a pair of old paperback book-cover collages assembled by Bookgasm’s Bruce Grossman. One combines the fronts from works by Ellery Queen, Richard S. Prather, Mickey Spillane, and others. The second--which is the image I chose for my own screen--concentrates on Brett Halliday’s Mike Shayne novels, all of which were illustrated by the talented Robert McGinnis. You’ll find both desktop alternatives at The Big Adios.
• Barry Forshaw, author of The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction, provides the London Times with his list of “six American noir masters.” No real shockers here, although lumping David Goodis and Jim Thompson together with Ross Macdonald and Donald E. Westlake isn’t always done. (I wonder what distinction Forshaw makes between “noir” and “hard-boiled” fiction.) Meanwhile, Allan Guthrie (Hard Man) offers up his own “idiosyncratic” list of 200 noir novels, published between 1929 and 1997. Find Guthrie’s rundown here.
• How did I miss the memo about HarperCollins reissuing (in mass-market paperback size) Lawrence Block’s eight novels featuring sleepless spy Evan Tanner? Luckily, Bookgasm has been keeping up with the roll-outs. See here and here.
• While I was out of town, pseudonymous blogger CrimeFicReader continued collecting recommendations from noteworthy British and Irish crime writers of books that really ought to be placed in “the crime aficionado’s stocking” this Christmas. Since we last checked in, she’s added picks from Chris Ewan, Declan Burke, John Baker, Bernard Knight, Margaret Murphy, Steve Mosby, Brian McGilloway, Donna Moore, and our friend R.N. “Roger” Morris.
• Sad news comes from Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site: Peter Haining, a onetime reporter in Britain who went on to edit anthologies of fantasy, horror, and mystery fiction, died from a heart attack on November 19. He was only 67 years old. Kimura notes that Haining “wrote a number of books about Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Hercule Poirot,
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Finally, let me tout a handsome new volume of cultural history, The Classic Era of Crime Fiction (Chicago Review Press). Written by Peter Haining, it traces the evolution of the modern mystery story from the 19th century through the 1950s, covering Sherlock Holmes and Britain’s “yellow-back” thrillers, as well as America’s Black Mask period and the rise of more literary yarns.Mr. Haining will definitely be missed.
Like last year’s excellent The History of Mystery, by Max Allan Collins, Haining’s book shows both an appreciation for and an infectious curiosity about this genre’s colorful development. Even people who consider themselves well read in crime fiction are likely to discover authors they’ve never heard of--such as Peter Cheyney, whose hard-boiled novels featuring British private eye Lemmy Caution (including This Man Is Dangerous, 1936) were precursors to Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer books. And who remembers the exploits of professor-sleuth Craig Kennedy, “the American Sherlock Holmes,” who appeared in more than two dozen novels (such as The Exploits of Elaine, 1915) written by Arthur B. Reeve? In addition to excavating the roots of detective fiction, Haining devotes an intriguing--what else?--chapter to the maturation of the spy story, from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Spy (1821), starring Revolutionary War agent Harvey Birch, all the way through John Buchan’s renowned The Thirty-nine Steps (1913), Herman McNeile’s Bulldog Drummond series (including The Female of the Species, 1928), Eric Ambler’s espionage classics (such as The Mask of Dimitrios, 1939) and, of course, the best-selling titles by Ian Fleming and John le Carré.
As good as its text is, though, The Classic Era of Crime Fiction probably wouldn’t attract nearly so much attention were it not for its abundant original magazine and book jacket illustrations, from the startling (the cover of George Manville’s 1899 A Crimson Crime shows a frilly-hatted woman shooting a man in the head) to the suggestive (Bevis Winter’s Redheads Are Poison, 1948, is fronted by a long-legged beauty in a dress so sheer that one’s imagination hasn’t far to leap).
UPDATE: UK novelist Martin Edwards has posted a short tribute to Haining in his blog, ‘Do You Write Under Your Own Name?’ You can find his contribution here.
• If you need an escape from the chill and psychological blues this winter, New York magazine recommends picking up a spy novel set in some distant corner of the planet. Among its 10 selections: The Midnight Choir, by Gene Kerrigan (Dublin, Ireland); Salamander Cotton, by Richard Kunzmann (South Africa); and Hidden Moon, by James Church (Pyongyang, North Korea). Read the whole list here.
• Novelist Richard Helms is back with the second edition of his crime-fiction Webzine, The Back Alley. Included this time are stories by Bryon Quertermous, Megan Powell, and Keith Gilman. There’s also a good chunk of Frank Norris’ “classic noir” tale, McTeague, which Helms promises will “be continued in the next issue.” Look for the full Back Alley contents here.
• Here’s an odd development. Reports the Associated Press:
Deployed on high-stakes missions across the globe and surrounded by glamorous admirers, James Bond should be the perfect recruitment tool for Britain’s intelligence agencies.Read the full story here.
But the icon gives a disorted impression of MI6’s work and may be hampering its drive to hire more minorities, Muslims and women, the service’s chief recruiter said in an interview Monday with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
• We’re very late to the party on this one, we know ... but writer-editor Anthony Neil Smith reports that the once-popular Webzine Plots With Guns, which posted its “final issue” at the end of 2004, “will go back online in the new year, as soon as I get enough good stories to fill an issue.” Smith adds:
I’ll be doing quarterly issues. The pay will be ... well, it’ll be me buying you your drink of choice the next time I happen to see you. The standards will be higher than ever, and I’ll be pickier than ever. Looking for hard-boiled, noir and transgressive crime fiction. Every story has to have a gun in it somehow, some way (doesn’t have to play a big role. Just needs to be there). No pastiche. It’s got to feel right to find a home in PWG. ...It’ll be good to have Plots With Guns back in the game. We’ll let you know when the first new issue is posted.
In 2008, we’re starting over with Issue #1. Send me your best (e-mail only). You know how to get in touch. And I promise you this won’t be a Ross Perot thing (he’s running, he’s not, he’s running again, he’s not). This time, I’m sticking around for the long haul.
• And British writer Mark Billingham (Death Message) is Angie Johnson-Schmit’s latest victim ... er, interviewee on the In for Questioning podcast. “In this episode,” she says, “Mark talks about his Tom Thorne police procedurals, his upcoming stand-alone novel, In The Dark, and the foreword he wrote for the fab anthology, Expletive Deleted. He also joins in the debate about genre vs. literary novels and how much sex/violence/cussin’ is too much. Find out what's on Mark’s iPod, the perks of mentioning favorite restaurants in your novels and what celebrities are reading his books.” Click here to listen in.
Labels:
Barry Forshaw,
Eddie Muller,
Mark Billingham,
Obits 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
“I’m Just Another Cop. My Name Is Columbo”
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Editor’s note: As we noted in this space last month, British novelist Mark Billingham (Death Message) has recently been involved in the production of a radio documentary about Columbo, the popular 1970s American TV series that starred Peter Falk as a rumpled Los Angeles homicide detective who was far savvier than his well-off suspects realized--until it was too late. That documentary, titled Just One More Thing: Columbo! is scheduled to be broadcast on the UK’s BBC Radio 4 tomorrow, September 11, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Columbo fans living outside of Britain will be able to “listen again” to the show via the Radio 4 Web site a day or so afterwards. In anticipation of that broadcast, we asked Billingham to share with us some of his experiences in assembling this special and meeting “Columbo” himself. His reminiscences are featured below in their entirety.
* * *
Being asked if I’d like to present a documentary about Columbo was as close as you could get to a no-brainer for me. I’ve been a huge fan of the show, and of star Peter Falk in particular, for as long as I can remember. Fortunately for me, I mentioned that fact once in an interview, and a producer from BBC Radio 4 got in touch.The original idea involved all sorts of worthy notions, including the debt the NBC show owes to Crime and Punishment and the inverted mysteries of R. Austin Freeman. Although these things are mentioned in the finished program, there simply isn’t time in 30 minutes to go into such things in any depth. Instead, we have a documentary which, while looking at how Columbo came about, concentrates on celebrating it, on asking why it has become so iconic and endured so long.
Most people are familiar with the show’s groundbreaking format, the fact that it turned the traditional whodunit upside down; and for me and many others the joy of watching Columbo is in observing the beautifully choreographed dance of death between the cop and the killer. The viewer becomes the fascinated voyeur, relishing each step or misstep, enjoying every moment as the tension is ratcheted up, until that final “pop” when the murderer makes his or her one mistake and Columbo pounces. These “pops” were meticulously researched and Falk himself became obsessive about them. He tells a story involving everyone on the Universal Studios lot being asked to remove their trousers, just to check which hand most people used and which leg they stepped out of first. Falk had plenty of stories …
Fewer people outside the industry might be aware that the show was a breeding ground for some of the most innovative talents to emerge in film and TV over the last 30 years. Dick Levinson and Bill Link, the show’s creators, brought in a young writer and story editor named Steven Bochco. Steven Spielberg directed the first episode in season one. Later, Jonathan Demme, after the failure of his first feature, was called in to direct a fantastic episode called “Murder Under Glass” with the wonderfully louche Louis Jourdan as a murderous restaurant critic. Bochco and Demme both raved about Columbo when we spoke to them. Demme tells a fabulous story about how, while traveling with Jimmy Carter for a documentary he was making, he was constantly introduced by the ex-president as the “man who directed Columbo,” rather than the man who directed The Silence of the Lambs or Philadelphia. Carter, it seems, is a real Columbo nut! Bochco talked very openly about some of the frustrations of working on Columbo, but is most fascinating when he starts to analyze it and reveals his theory that class warfare is at the very heart of the show. Columbo himself is the working stiff, fatally underestimated by the rich and powerful villains he is pursuing.
Falk, of course, completely disagrees ...
So, we talked to Bochco, Demme, and at length to Bill Link, the surviving half of the team that started it all. It would have been nice to talk to a few more of the “guest murderers,” but even if we could have got hold of more (Leonard Nimoy didn’t respond, William Shatner said no, Faye Dunaway wanted far too much money), there simply would not have been time to fit them all in. As it is, we did get the wonderful Robert Vaughn, who of course was both killer and victim. Others who were interviewed and didn’t make the final broadcast included Ben Gazzara (who together with Falk and John Cassavetes were something of a ’70s “Rat Pack”) and acclaimed UK TV writer Jimmy McGovern, who acknowledges his debt to the show in his creation of Cracker.
But we did get some fantastic interviewees and of course, we got Falk himself. It wasn’t the easiest interview to set up and was arranged and canceled a number of times before we finally got to talk. However, it was worth the wait.

So happy birthday, Peter, and I hope those who listen to the show enjoy it. My favorite episode of Columbo? Well I’m fond of “Étude in Black” with Cassavetes, and “By Dawn’s Early Light” with Patrick McGoohan. But of course, I’ve got a soft-spot for “Swan Song” from season three, with Johnny Cash as blackmailed country star Tommy Brown. If only we’d made this show a few years ago, I might have had the chance to talk with him as well ...
BONUS QUESTION: In which episode of Columbo does the lieutenant utter the line we’ve used as the headline on this post?
POSTSCRIPT: Although BBC Radio 4 no longer invites people to tune in for Mark Billingham’s radio documentary about Columbo, the show remains available online, in three parts. I have embedded those segments below for your listening pleasure. And what a pleasure it is.
Labels:
Columbo,
Mark Billingham,
NBC Mystery Movie
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
A Stand-up Crime Writer
I first bumped into Mark Billingham way back in 1999, when he was a still-unpublished British crime writer standing in a lengthy queue outside London’s Murder One Bookstore, waiting for
the release of Thomas Harris’ sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1988), Hannibal. I encountered him again a year later at the Dead-on-Deansgate conference, after his debut novel, Sleepyhead, was published. We shared a few beers, and I took some photos of the young Mr. Billingham before he went off to interview American writer George Pelecanos. After enjoying Sleepyhead, I was captivated by his follow-up, Scaredy Cat (2002), a sweaty novel about two serial killers working “in concert.” But of course, those slayers didn’t stand a chance, when pitted against Billingham’s series protagonist, Detective Tom Thorne, who would go on to win his creator a Sherlock Award at the Crimescene 2003 conference in London.
In the years since, Billingham has been juggling his composing of the Thorne series with his stand-up comedy work, his writing for television, his acting, and his efforts as one of the organizers of the annual Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. Not an easy set of responsibilities to handle, but he’s done it. And did I mention that he was once also a contributor to Shots, back when it was an in-print magazine, rather than the Web publication it is today? It was the dry-witted and insightful Billingham, in fact, who convinced me to join editor Mike Stotter at Shots (a memorable moment I captured on film). As his renown has risen, Billingham has himself become the subject of a Shots interview.
Anticipating this month’s paperback release in the UK of his sixth Thorne novel, Buried, and a hardcover version of that same book finally being due out in the States at the beginning of August; and with his latest novel, Death Message, debuting in Britain on August 23, I tracked down this award-winning Birmingham-born writer for The Rap Sheet, and talked with him about his works-in-progress, his extracurricular activities, and his history as a humorist.
Ali Karim: It’s been a while since I saw you last, so let me begin by asking: What it’s like having a successful police-procedural series under your belt?
Mark Billingham: Yeah, it’s been a while, Ali, nice to talk to you again. It’s brilliant that the Thorne books are doing so well. As a massive fan of series crime fiction, it’s great to be part of the gang. That’s how [Ian] Rankin describes the crime-fiction community and I think it’s spot on. We’re outsiders to a degree, but within our own ranks there’s an amazing amount of great work being done, and it’s a supportive place to be.
AK: I’m looking forward to seeing Death Message. Can you tell us something about that seventh Thorne outing?
MB: I’m very excited about it. It’s a book that draws a line under several of the issues that have been developing over the last few books. It sees the return of one of the nastier characters it’s ever been my pleasure to create, and on top of that, something that has haunted Thorne for a while is finally sorted out once and for all. It seemed like a good place to take a break.
AK: That’s right. You’re set to publish your first standalone next. What’s that story about?
MB: I’ve nearly finished that book. It’s called In the Dark and will be published simultaneously here and in the U.S. next year. I’ve always admired those writers, like Michael Connelly [The Overlook] who can step away from a series and write fantastic standalone stuff. I think, if you can do that, you come back to your series re-energized. This was a story that had no place for Thorne (though he moves briefly through it) and was something I was desperate to write. I’d done seven Thorne novels on the bounce and I knew the time was right to do something else. There’s a voice in your head that lets you know these things and you can’t ignore it. If you do, you’ll end up hearing the same thing from readers, by which time it’s probably too late. It’s been scary stepping out of that comfort zone, but also really liberating. This is not a procedural novel at all. Broadly speaking, it’s about how a fatal car accident affects the lives of three very different people. The main character is a woman, and I’ve had to do some research into the latter stages of pregnancy, but I drew the line at writing while wearing false breasts.
AK: So what about poor old Thorne. He’s not going the same way as [John] Rebus, is he?
MB: Well, I don’t think any of us know which way Rebus is going to go! My money’s on a sex change, and I’m very much looking forward to the continuing adventures of Joanna Rebus, the female cop with the suspiciously hairy hands. As for Thorne, I certainly haven’t killed him off and he will be in the next book, which I think will be called The Life Thief. I’m just giving the old bugger a break, you know? When the time comes to put him out to pasture for good, I may just let him retire to the countryside and make jam and annoy the neighbors by playing Hank Williams at three in the morning.
AK: And your UK publishers? How have they taken to this hiatus from the Thorne series?
MB: I’ve been very lucky in that Little, Brown have always been hugely supportive of everything I’ve wanted to write. They see nothing until the book is delivered. They’re very keen on the standalone. Actually, a change of direction, as well as being liberating for an author, can make the job of marketing and publicizing a book a bit easier. It’s hard sometimes when all you have to say is “it’s another Thorne novel,” whereas “the first standalone from the author of the Thorne novels” can give people more to play with.
AK: And what of your American publishers?
MB: They’re actually very excited about the standalone, which is why they’ve decided to publish simultaneously with the UK edition, which is fantastic. It’s hard to turn U.S. readers on to a series which is already a good way down the line, so a standalone thriller makes more sense, I think. If people enjoy the standalone, then obviously we hope they go back and pick up some of the Thorne novels, all of which should be able to stand on their own. That’s the plan, anyway.
AK: You have been linked with Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. So tell us a little about your involvement with that annual event.
MB: I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in some way with every one of the festivals, and last year I was invited to chair the programming committee. This basically meant that I could ask all my favorite authors to come, and the whole thing felt rather like a huge party that was all over far too quickly. The festival has a great atmosphere--very informal and enthusiastic--and readers and writers spend the whole weekend together. There are no multi-track events, so everything is very well attended and there are also events played strictly for laughs, which makes it pretty unique, I think. I had a ball chairing the festival and I’m really looking forward to taking part again this year, when the festival is being chaired by Natasha Cooper.
AK: What have been the highlights of Harrogate for you?
MB: I was thrilled that George Pelecanos came across as our special guest and that not only was his sell-out event a huge hit, but he then proceeded to sell every single copy of each of his books in stock at the festival bookshop. The standing ovation for P.D. James was pretty special too, and I also enjoyed doing the quiz on the last night. I will always remember asking the question, “How does Hercule Poirot die?” and hearing a horrified voice in the audience whispering, “Oh my God … he dies?”
AK: And you seem to spend a lot of time on the forum at your Web site. Why start such a forum, when many other writers have closed theirs down?
MB: I thought long and hard about it, but I’m glad I decided to do it. I think the key is having a really great moderator, which I have. She keeps on top of things and ensures that everything runs smoothly. The people who contribute are real enthusiasts of the genre, and enjoy the fact that a number of other writers drop by and post on the forum. We’ve recently started a monthly book club, which is really taking off. I suggest a book each month and then the writers come on board for a couple of days and respond to comments. So far the likes of Laura Lippman, John Harvey, John Connolly, and Chris Brookmyre have taken part, and I think they all had a good time. That’s what they told me anyway …
AK: Are you still working the comedy circuit?
MB: I’m still keeping my hand in, but not much more. It’s hard to find the time to write material when I have books to write, and it’s even harder to be away from home doing shows when I spend more time every year on the road with the books. I still love it, though, and can’t quite kick the habit. Sometimes, after a day spent writing about death and darkness, it’s nice to get out and tell a few cheap jokes. It cheers me up, if no one else.
AK: How integral is humor in your writing then?
MB: Well the books are pretty dark, you know that, but there is certainly humor in them. There has to be. Sometimes the funniest things happen at the darkest times, and I try to reflect that in the mood of the books. You’ll close a chapter with something painful and kick the next one off with a joke, because life is like that. Also, the people I’m writing about have the blackest sense of humor. You want to hear jokes flying about, go to a crime scene.
AK: Have you ever fancied going for the Carl Hiaasen or Colin Bateman full-on comedic sort of crime novel?
MB: I considered doing that, early on, and I’m a big fan of those writers; but in the end it felt too much like a busman’s holiday, you know? I tend to prefer the darker stuff and I have something approaching a full-on allergic reaction to any book that could be described as a “caper.”
AK: Like many writers, you tour and promote your work. So tell us about some of the funny moments you’ve had on the road.
MB: I did an event with Stuart MacBride last year, and afterwards we went out for dinner with his agent. We were joined by a guy who just wandered across with us from the bookshop, and of course we were all far too British and polite to ask who he was. He sat and drank with us and then ate dinner with us, and finally got up and walked out without paying. Actually, I kind of admired his chutzpah. I always prefer to do events with somebody else. They can be very hit and miss and it’s always nice to have someone to share the misery with. I’ve had some great times out and about with the likes of John Connolly and Chris Brookmyre, and l’ll be touring this year with Peter Robinson, which I’m really looking forward to.
AK: Some writers absolutely dread the self-promotion side of book publishing. What’s your take on promotional work and the commercial aspects of being a novelist?
MB: Well, nobody has a gun to your head, but I think, unless you come out in a cold sweat at the thought of doing it, you need to get out and promote your work. It’s not digging a ditch, is it? Most of the time you’re very nicely looked after and it’s a pleasure to sit there and meet readers and talk about your stuff. Of course, there are always events you’d rather forget, but most of the time I really enjoy it. If you spend nine months sitting on your own writing this stuff, it’s positively therapeutic to actually engage with people. You’d go a little bonkers otherwise. For me, it comes down to promoting the books, or running mad with a rifle in Starbucks.
AK: With a body of work to your credit, tell me what motivates your writing nowadays.
MB: I don’t think I need too much motivation. It’s the dream job and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing. Well, there was that thing with Halle Berry, but she wasn’t interested ... I think every writer is always trying to write a better book, so each time you sit down there’s a bit of you hoping that this will be the one. And it’s important to treat it like a job, I think, to sit down each day and go to work.
AK: I heard a rumor that you’re setting a future book in the USA and have been researching U.S. police methods. Is that true?
MB: No more than a rumor. It may have been something I thought about for two minutes and it somehow ended up in print. I think I’ll leave that to the likes of Lee [Child] and John [Connolly]--oh, and the hundreds of American writers who do it rather brilliantly.
AK: As a lover of translated crime fiction, I see you were guest of honor at the Scandinavian Crime Writers Association and attended the Glass Key Award ceremony. Would you care to tell us a little about the event?
MB: I remember lots of pickled fish, and equally pickled Scandinavians. And I have a vague memory of tottering about in a karaoke bar in Helsinki with a very drunk Icelandic writer and singing “Jambalaya” before they threw us out. Everything else is a blur.
AK: And what books have passed over your reading table recently?
MB: Laura Lippman’s new one, What the Dead Know, is an amazing book, as is John Connolly’s The Unquiet. I really enjoyed Sebastian Junger’s A Death in Belmont, too. A few others have passed very briefly across the table, in that I abandoned them. I’ll give up on a book if it hasn’t got me by 50 pages or so, and I would fully expect anybody reading one of mine to do the same thing. Life’s too short and there are too many good books out there.
AK: I just want to thank you for giving us this time, and send you back to your writing.
MB: No problem. Now I must go and feed chocolate to the team of elves I employ to actually write the books.
READ MORE: “Mark Billingham’s Top 10 Fictional Detectives” (The Guardian).
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In the years since, Billingham has been juggling his composing of the Thorne series with his stand-up comedy work, his writing for television, his acting, and his efforts as one of the organizers of the annual Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. Not an easy set of responsibilities to handle, but he’s done it. And did I mention that he was once also a contributor to Shots, back when it was an in-print magazine, rather than the Web publication it is today? It was the dry-witted and insightful Billingham, in fact, who convinced me to join editor Mike Stotter at Shots (a memorable moment I captured on film). As his renown has risen, Billingham has himself become the subject of a Shots interview.
Anticipating this month’s paperback release in the UK of his sixth Thorne novel, Buried, and a hardcover version of that same book finally being due out in the States at the beginning of August; and with his latest novel, Death Message, debuting in Britain on August 23, I tracked down this award-winning Birmingham-born writer for The Rap Sheet, and talked with him about his works-in-progress, his extracurricular activities, and his history as a humorist.
Ali Karim: It’s been a while since I saw you last, so let me begin by asking: What it’s like having a successful police-procedural series under your belt?
Mark Billingham: Yeah, it’s been a while, Ali, nice to talk to you again. It’s brilliant that the Thorne books are doing so well. As a massive fan of series crime fiction, it’s great to be part of the gang. That’s how [Ian] Rankin describes the crime-fiction community and I think it’s spot on. We’re outsiders to a degree, but within our own ranks there’s an amazing amount of great work being done, and it’s a supportive place to be.
AK: I’m looking forward to seeing Death Message. Can you tell us something about that seventh Thorne outing?
MB: I’m very excited about it. It’s a book that draws a line under several of the issues that have been developing over the last few books. It sees the return of one of the nastier characters it’s ever been my pleasure to create, and on top of that, something that has haunted Thorne for a while is finally sorted out once and for all. It seemed like a good place to take a break.
AK: That’s right. You’re set to publish your first standalone next. What’s that story about?
MB: I’ve nearly finished that book. It’s called In the Dark and will be published simultaneously here and in the U.S. next year. I’ve always admired those writers, like Michael Connelly [The Overlook] who can step away from a series and write fantastic standalone stuff. I think, if you can do that, you come back to your series re-energized. This was a story that had no place for Thorne (though he moves briefly through it) and was something I was desperate to write. I’d done seven Thorne novels on the bounce and I knew the time was right to do something else. There’s a voice in your head that lets you know these things and you can’t ignore it. If you do, you’ll end up hearing the same thing from readers, by which time it’s probably too late. It’s been scary stepping out of that comfort zone, but also really liberating. This is not a procedural novel at all. Broadly speaking, it’s about how a fatal car accident affects the lives of three very different people. The main character is a woman, and I’ve had to do some research into the latter stages of pregnancy, but I drew the line at writing while wearing false breasts.
AK: So what about poor old Thorne. He’s not going the same way as [John] Rebus, is he?
MB: Well, I don’t think any of us know which way Rebus is going to go! My money’s on a sex change, and I’m very much looking forward to the continuing adventures of Joanna Rebus, the female cop with the suspiciously hairy hands. As for Thorne, I certainly haven’t killed him off and he will be in the next book, which I think will be called The Life Thief. I’m just giving the old bugger a break, you know? When the time comes to put him out to pasture for good, I may just let him retire to the countryside and make jam and annoy the neighbors by playing Hank Williams at three in the morning.
AK: And your UK publishers? How have they taken to this hiatus from the Thorne series?
MB: I’ve been very lucky in that Little, Brown have always been hugely supportive of everything I’ve wanted to write. They see nothing until the book is delivered. They’re very keen on the standalone. Actually, a change of direction, as well as being liberating for an author, can make the job of marketing and publicizing a book a bit easier. It’s hard sometimes when all you have to say is “it’s another Thorne novel,” whereas “the first standalone from the author of the Thorne novels” can give people more to play with.
AK: And what of your American publishers?
MB: They’re actually very excited about the standalone, which is why they’ve decided to publish simultaneously with the UK edition, which is fantastic. It’s hard to turn U.S. readers on to a series which is already a good way down the line, so a standalone thriller makes more sense, I think. If people enjoy the standalone, then obviously we hope they go back and pick up some of the Thorne novels, all of which should be able to stand on their own. That’s the plan, anyway.
AK: You have been linked with Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. So tell us a little about your involvement with that annual event.
MB: I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in some way with every one of the festivals, and last year I was invited to chair the programming committee. This basically meant that I could ask all my favorite authors to come, and the whole thing felt rather like a huge party that was all over far too quickly. The festival has a great atmosphere--very informal and enthusiastic--and readers and writers spend the whole weekend together. There are no multi-track events, so everything is very well attended and there are also events played strictly for laughs, which makes it pretty unique, I think. I had a ball chairing the festival and I’m really looking forward to taking part again this year, when the festival is being chaired by Natasha Cooper.
AK: What have been the highlights of Harrogate for you?
MB: I was thrilled that George Pelecanos came across as our special guest and that not only was his sell-out event a huge hit, but he then proceeded to sell every single copy of each of his books in stock at the festival bookshop. The standing ovation for P.D. James was pretty special too, and I also enjoyed doing the quiz on the last night. I will always remember asking the question, “How does Hercule Poirot die?” and hearing a horrified voice in the audience whispering, “Oh my God … he dies?”
AK: And you seem to spend a lot of time on the forum at your Web site. Why start such a forum, when many other writers have closed theirs down?
MB: I thought long and hard about it, but I’m glad I decided to do it. I think the key is having a really great moderator, which I have. She keeps on top of things and ensures that everything runs smoothly. The people who contribute are real enthusiasts of the genre, and enjoy the fact that a number of other writers drop by and post on the forum. We’ve recently started a monthly book club, which is really taking off. I suggest a book each month and then the writers come on board for a couple of days and respond to comments. So far the likes of Laura Lippman, John Harvey, John Connolly, and Chris Brookmyre have taken part, and I think they all had a good time. That’s what they told me anyway …
AK: Are you still working the comedy circuit?
MB: I’m still keeping my hand in, but not much more. It’s hard to find the time to write material when I have books to write, and it’s even harder to be away from home doing shows when I spend more time every year on the road with the books. I still love it, though, and can’t quite kick the habit. Sometimes, after a day spent writing about death and darkness, it’s nice to get out and tell a few cheap jokes. It cheers me up, if no one else.
AK: How integral is humor in your writing then?
MB: Well the books are pretty dark, you know that, but there is certainly humor in them. There has to be. Sometimes the funniest things happen at the darkest times, and I try to reflect that in the mood of the books. You’ll close a chapter with something painful and kick the next one off with a joke, because life is like that. Also, the people I’m writing about have the blackest sense of humor. You want to hear jokes flying about, go to a crime scene.
AK: Have you ever fancied going for the Carl Hiaasen or Colin Bateman full-on comedic sort of crime novel?
MB: I considered doing that, early on, and I’m a big fan of those writers; but in the end it felt too much like a busman’s holiday, you know? I tend to prefer the darker stuff and I have something approaching a full-on allergic reaction to any book that could be described as a “caper.”
AK: Like many writers, you tour and promote your work. So tell us about some of the funny moments you’ve had on the road.
MB: I did an event with Stuart MacBride last year, and afterwards we went out for dinner with his agent. We were joined by a guy who just wandered across with us from the bookshop, and of course we were all far too British and polite to ask who he was. He sat and drank with us and then ate dinner with us, and finally got up and walked out without paying. Actually, I kind of admired his chutzpah. I always prefer to do events with somebody else. They can be very hit and miss and it’s always nice to have someone to share the misery with. I’ve had some great times out and about with the likes of John Connolly and Chris Brookmyre, and l’ll be touring this year with Peter Robinson, which I’m really looking forward to.
AK: Some writers absolutely dread the self-promotion side of book publishing. What’s your take on promotional work and the commercial aspects of being a novelist?
MB: Well, nobody has a gun to your head, but I think, unless you come out in a cold sweat at the thought of doing it, you need to get out and promote your work. It’s not digging a ditch, is it? Most of the time you’re very nicely looked after and it’s a pleasure to sit there and meet readers and talk about your stuff. Of course, there are always events you’d rather forget, but most of the time I really enjoy it. If you spend nine months sitting on your own writing this stuff, it’s positively therapeutic to actually engage with people. You’d go a little bonkers otherwise. For me, it comes down to promoting the books, or running mad with a rifle in Starbucks.

MB: I don’t think I need too much motivation. It’s the dream job and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing. Well, there was that thing with Halle Berry, but she wasn’t interested ... I think every writer is always trying to write a better book, so each time you sit down there’s a bit of you hoping that this will be the one. And it’s important to treat it like a job, I think, to sit down each day and go to work.
AK: I heard a rumor that you’re setting a future book in the USA and have been researching U.S. police methods. Is that true?
MB: No more than a rumor. It may have been something I thought about for two minutes and it somehow ended up in print. I think I’ll leave that to the likes of Lee [Child] and John [Connolly]--oh, and the hundreds of American writers who do it rather brilliantly.
AK: As a lover of translated crime fiction, I see you were guest of honor at the Scandinavian Crime Writers Association and attended the Glass Key Award ceremony. Would you care to tell us a little about the event?
MB: I remember lots of pickled fish, and equally pickled Scandinavians. And I have a vague memory of tottering about in a karaoke bar in Helsinki with a very drunk Icelandic writer and singing “Jambalaya” before they threw us out. Everything else is a blur.
AK: And what books have passed over your reading table recently?
MB: Laura Lippman’s new one, What the Dead Know, is an amazing book, as is John Connolly’s The Unquiet. I really enjoyed Sebastian Junger’s A Death in Belmont, too. A few others have passed very briefly across the table, in that I abandoned them. I’ll give up on a book if it hasn’t got me by 50 pages or so, and I would fully expect anybody reading one of mine to do the same thing. Life’s too short and there are too many good books out there.
AK: I just want to thank you for giving us this time, and send you back to your writing.
MB: No problem. Now I must go and feed chocolate to the team of elves I employ to actually write the books.
READ MORE: “Mark Billingham’s Top 10 Fictional Detectives” (The Guardian).
Labels:
Interviews,
Mark Billingham
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