|
|
 |
You
now live in Tokyo. How important to your creative work is your experience
of growing up in West Yorkshire?
The
Red Riding Quartet is
set in the West Yorkshire of the 1970s and early 80s. This was where
and when I grew up - it is where and when I know. I now live in
Tokyo but, in terms of the places and the times I write about, it
doesn't matter where I live - You can take the man out of Yorkshire,
but not the Yorkshire out of the man.
Why
focus a series of novels around the police investigations involving
the Yorkshire Ripper?
Again,
I was born in Dewsbury in 1967 and didn't leave West Yorkshire until
1987 (and then only to Manchester). The crimes of the Yorkshire
Ripper and the police hunt for the person (or persons) responsible
lasted from 1975 until 1981 and, for me, cast a shadow over that
entire place and time. I believe you should write about things that
matter, about things you care for, things you know - what matters
to me, what I care for, and what I know - is the West Yorkshire
of my childhood which, unfortunately, was also the Yorkshire of
the Ripper.
Your
novels show a strong sense of place and period. Did you do much
research before setting out to write the novels?
I research in great detail the place and time of each novel. I do
this through the British newspapers that are kept here at the National
Library in Tokyo, and through the books, films and music of the
particular places and times. Living far away now, it is perhaps
easier for me to recreate and sustain the places and times about
which I write - unimpeded and oblivious to the distractions and
changes of the present.
There
were concerns at the time about the way the police handled the investigation
into the Yorkshire Ripper? Do you think the police were as you portray
them in the Quartet?
Yes, or I wouldn't have written the books in the way that I have.
The cases of Stefan Kiszko, Judith Ward and Anthony Steel - all
of which involved detectives from the Ripper Squad - offer nothing
to contradict my fictions and even a cursory examination of the
Ripper investigation itself reveals a monumental degree of failure
on the part of senior detectives. Recent revelations (for money)
in regard to killing kits only further prove that we do not know
the whole story. The survivors and families of the victims, and
the communities that were terrorised, still do not know the whole
truth and that in itself is corrupt.
Which
writers have influenced your work?
As a young man, I was very influenced by Stan Barstow (also from
Ossett), John Braine, Alan Sillitoe, Barry Hines and David Storey
- just to know you could come from the same place and write about
it and that people would read it. From these writers, I discovered
the lesser known British crime writers Derek Raymond and Ted Lewis
(who wrote Get Carter) and then US crime writers such as James Ellroy
and Walter Mosley.
Tell
us about your next book
My next novel is called GB 84 and will be published by Faber next
year. It is, if you like, an occult history of the 1984-85 miners'
strike. Like the hunt for the Ripper, the miners' strike was an
intense and divisive experience for everyone who lived through it
and like the Ripper it also left its (guilty) mark on me.
How
do you feel about being on the Granta list?
Of course, I was happy for my work to be recognized by Granta -
but especially for Serpents Tail who are a small, independent publisher
in a world of large, conglomerate publishers. In many ways, my books
are the antithesis of mainstream crime novels and general fiction
and are therefore difficult books to publicise and sell. Serpents
Tail were the first publisher I approached and have been committed
to the books from the start. Neither myself nor Serpents Tail have
compromised in the writing and publishing of these four books and,
I feel, the Granta list is vindication.
|
