Graham Hurley is the author of the critically acclaimed
Portsmouth-set D/I Faraday and D/S Winter series. Noted for their realistic portrayal of
contemporary Britain, the second half of 2012 sees Graham at the start of a new
series, this time set in Devon. However,
Graham has also self-published, “Backstory”,
which explores and analyses the Portsmouth novels… Nick Quantrill interviews him.
NQ
– Congratulations on a very readable
account of the Faraday and Winter series.
Why did you want to write this book?
GH
- It came from one of the hundreds of e-mails I started getting after the
publication of “Borrowed Light” the
penultimate book in the Faraday series.
A lady who lived in California had taken grave exception – grave to the
point of near violence – to something that had happened to my principal
character, D/I Joe Faraday. I will not
go into the details because I’m not sure it’s my job to offer spoilers but she
was really, really upset and came close to threatening a personal visit. What right had I to do what I’d done to poor
Joe? Wasn’t I aware of the kind of
traumatic damage I was inflicting on so many readers? To be honest, I was bemused. I wrote her a long reply, trying to point out
that characters who work on the page have lives of their own and therefore make
their own decisions. In other words, it
wasn’t me who made the key narrative decisions but them. I explained that this applied in spades to
Joe, largely because we’d shared headspace over eleven long years and I like to
think that we’d got to know each other a little. Faraday – and I hope a lot of other
characters – do what they do not at my bidding but theirs. And that – to me – is how certain kinds of
fiction work. To be fair to the lady in
question, she calmed down and wrote me a
warm message in response but the sheer force of that first reaction – in common
with other stuff I was getting – made me start to wonder exactly where all
these characters of mine had really come from.
Before the Faraday books I’d never written series fiction before and
that particular journey, with all its challenges, had first surprised and then
fascinated me. I began to talk about
this with close friends – guys who knew the books – and it was at that point
that I realised an appetite might exist for a kind of post-series supplementary
feature: how the books came about, where the writing had taken me, how much importance I placed on getting stuck
into the research, all that. In a way, it felt like one of those Extra
Features you get on movie DVDs. And I
guess that’s what it became. Am I
pleased with it? Yes. Has it surprised me? Very much so.
Might it be of any use to fellow or aspiring writers? Here’s hoping….
NQ
– Reading “Backstory”, one of the most striking things for me was the fact
crime fiction was something that found you.
How do you feel about the genre now, twelve novels down the line?
GH - To be honest, I still don’t read crime
fiction. I try from time to time,
largely because I have to talk on various media platforms that are likely to
assume a wealth of shared knowledge of the genre, but every time I start a new
crime writer, I know my heart’s not in it.
It’s not reading books that is the problem. I hoover up countless non-fiction stuff –
biographies, contemporary political studies, good travel writing, and recent
history – and this kind of work gives me a real buzz. I also like some contemporary and
near-contemporary fiction – Justin Cartwright and J.G.Farrell are huge
favourites – but the moment I’m plunged back into the world of Scenes of Crime,
and DNA printouts, and serial rape, my heart sinks. Why? I
wish I knew.
NQ
– Running alongside efforts to move the
series onwards in terms of commercial success is the sense that the publishing
world was changing dramatically. If you
were writing book one today, do you think you would have been given the same
time to develop and refine your craft?
GH
– I think it’s highly unlikely. I’ve been publishing one book a year for the
last 27 years and I’ve watched the culture of publishing change. Orion, in many ways, have been very kind to
me. They’ve given the Faraday series
space to grow and flourish and while there may have been a sense of
disappointment on both sides that the books never really broke through to the
top end of bestsellerdom, I think there was a recognition that I’ve been trying
to do something slightly different with the genre, and attracted a decent
readership in the process. Towards the
end of that journey, I became aware that the cruder commercial pressures were
growing exponentially and if I was starting, again with a birdwatching loner
and his deaf-mute son I doubt whether I’d get past the first contract. The pressures on the traditional publishing
model are immense. The retail and
digital revolutions – bascially Amazon and Kindle – are turning the books
industry on its head. Publishers and the
major specialist retail outlets are naturally talking a good war but I think
they know that certain battles are all but lost. Where this will leave authors, especially new
authors, is anyone’s guess. There are
opportunities that simply didn’t exist even a couple of years ago. But it’s going to be harder and harder to
tease a living out of what we do.
NQ
– One of the major changes the
publishing world is experiencing has to be the rise of self-publishing. Is that something you’re going to do more of
alongside the traditional route?
GH
– The answer is yes. Both publishers and
retailers tend not to think outside the genre box. If they’ve got you nailed as a crime writer,
then that’s where you stay – especially if you’ve met with any kind of
success. But I guess it’s in the nature
of most writers to make a bid for freedom now and again and in the shape of
Kindle – or any of the other e-platforms –, there’s a perfect opportunity to do
just that. There remain all kinds of
marketing problems – just how do your books elbow their way to the head of a
huge, huge queue? But if you’re blessed
with a decent backlist, an existing readership, plus a website that works, then
I guess you’re in with a shout. The
self-publish thing fascinates me. In
days gone by, publishers would make
publication a day to remember - big launch,
huge guest list, limitless vino –
but now it boils down to little you and a couple of pages on the internet. How long does it take to self-publish on
Kindle? Seventeen and a half minutes. I know because I’ve timed it.
NQ
– It was interesting to read that there
was no overall master plan for the Faraday series and that the characters
ultimately decided their own fates. Do
you think you’ll change or refine the process for the forthcoming DS Suttle
series?
GH
– Absolutely not. Twelve books on, I’m no closer to understanding the mysterious
chemistry that converts a gleam in the eye into 450 pages of bang-on crime
fiction but I’m a great believer in sticking to what works. The launch title in the new D/S Jimmy Suttle
series – “Western Approaches” – came
from a moment out at sea in an offshore rowing boat. I won’t bother you with too much detail but
it involved a joke about a local guy with far too much money and absolutely no
conversation. Everything else flowed
from that moment – and I’m glad to report that Orion are genuinely pleased with
the results. Just now, I’m working on
the research for Book Two. This time the
seed lay in a story told me by a Somerset clockmaker. After that, I knew exactly what kind of
fictional bones to toss my guys. The
rest, as ever, is down to them.
NQ
– How does it feel to be starting again with a new series after building such a
loyal readership with the Faraday series?
What can readers expect?
GH
– More of the same? No. These are books, which will be far simpler,
involve fewer characters, place less emphasis on police procedure, and have a
perhaps steadier narrative focus. One
reason for this transition is undoubtedly the setting. East Devon, where we now live, is
emphatically not Portsmouth. But take
the time to watch and listen and all the clues are there. Is the West of England a paradise scored for thatched
cottages and cream teas? By no
means. Does anything interesting ever
happen? Thank God, yes…
******
The
latest and final book in the DI Faraday and DS Winter series is Happy Days. A review of Happy Days can be found here.
