When and why did you begin writing? I was a kid, we had no TV and I did it for amusement. I still have what I wrote. It’s horrible.
Tell us your latest news? I’m finishing my 27th book, ‘Victoria Vanishes’. I thought it would have got easier by now. This is the last Bryant & May mystery novel, but there’s something new and different coming along behind it – there always is.
When did you first consider yourself a writer? When I touched my third book – the first two were silly stocking-fillers, but the third was proper fiction.
What inspired you to write your first book? Fear. When you write about the things you’re afraid of, the fear is made concrete, and you can deal with it.
Who or what has influenced your writing? Kath, my mother, is a great reader and always encouraged me. My best pal, Jim, gave me the confidence to do it. He’s always been Bryant to my May. Plus everything I saw, read and did between the ages of 6 and 16.
How did you come up with the title Bryant and May Mystery? If I say ‘off the back of a matchbox’, you’ll think me flippant, but the match names are accompanied by the phrase ‘England’s Glory’, which I always liked.
What books have most influenced your life most? ‘Gormenghast’. It’s difficult, vast, thrilling, heart-rending, but worth the challenge, especially when you’re young. Dickens and Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward, JG Ballard are all important to me.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor? Ballard, without question. He’s been so prescient and thought-provoking, and his language in the middle books is so graceful. I think he will eventually be recognized as a great giant of the 20th century.
What book are you reading now? ‘The Destiny Man’ by Peter Van Greenaway. I go to a writer’s group (more like an excuse to eat and drink) and we recommend forgotten authors to each other. It’s about the discovery of Shakespeare’s 37th folio, left on a tube train, who owns it, who died for it and why. Great fun. No author is forgotten while (s)he is read.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest? I love David Mitchell, although I had trouble with ‘The Cloud Atlas’. I think Susannah Clarke is extraordinary. Magnus Mills is very strange and wonderful. I like Don DeLillo. These are mostly people I admire for their language rather than what they have to say.
, Galton & Simpson, Michael Frayn, Peter Nichols, M
What are your current projects? I’m working on a crime trilogy called ‘Wife Or Death’, ‘Wed & Buried’ and ‘Married Alive’. I’m planning a new graphic novel, a more biographical, serious book, and a thriller.
What do you see as the influences on your writing? Work by Joe Orton, Ronald Firbankonty Python, Alan Bennett, anyone who dances across the English language with confidence and can thrill me makes me feel inadequate.
Do you have to travel much concerning your books? Not at all. I never get invited to anything far away. My friend Joanne gets to globe-trot in the company of her charming daughter, thanks to press interest. I’m one of the slightly invisible authors who prop up the real book world so that Jordan and Wayne Rooney can sell their memoirs. To be fair though, I was running a company for a long time, and too busy to do much more.
Who designed the covers? I did quite a few of the older ones, but now I’m in the hands of a terrific art director at Transworld.
What was the hardest part of writing your book? Finding a natural way to tie up the end of the first draft is always the worst thing. The second draft is where you have all the fun. The third is just tidying.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Fiction means you can make stuff up.
Don’t be ashamed of embarrassing yourself.
Think the unthinkable.
When you think it can’t go further, go further.
You don’t always need to explain why people do things.
Leave room for characters to breathe.
Dialogue is not conversation.
Believe what you write.
You don’t have to write from experience.
Make sure that something always remains unknowable.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers? Never stop questioning the authors you read – take nothing for gospel, and get in touch with them if you want to ask them something. Most authors love to respond. I have a message board on my website, and always listen to feedback. It’s at www.christopherfowler.co.uk
