Andrew Taylor Interview
Jan 2002

1) You’ve written quite a few books. For readers not familiar with your work, how would you describe your recent more recent work? The Roth trilogy, and The Lydmouth books?

Both Roth and Lydmouth allowed me to explore my interest in how the past influences the present, and how notions of morality change over time. The gave me a lot of elbow room to do this, too - the three books for Roth (a sort of archaeological dig excavating the development of a killer); and six to date for Lydmouth (a series of independent crime novels which build up a picture of a provincial society on the borders of England and Wales in the early 1950s which chronicling an illicit love affair). Now I'm working on The American Boy (see below).

2) Along with the series mentioned above, and your Dougal series, and The Blaines Trilogy, plus some stand alone thrillers, You’ve also written some young adult books. What is the difference in the Young Adult Thrillers? What do you like about writing them?

Actually there seems to be very little difference between writing stories for adults and for children/young adults. Books for the latter are obviously shorter and snappier, and there are certain topics you
leave out; but you still write with the same story-telling part of your mind.

3) What other jobs have you had besides writing?

boatbuilder, wages clerk, school teacher, private tutor, librarian, labourer and freelance publisher's editor.

4) The Dougal Series is pretty hardboiled and almost noir-ish in feel. Are there advantages to writing a character that is less than virtuous?

Highsmith's Ripley was one of Dougal's literary godfathers. I wanted to write about a nice character who was capable of doing nasty things (as most of us are). Goodies and baddies have always bored me in fiction: it's far more interesting to write about the shifting shades of grey which lie between black and white: hence Dougal.

5) In the Roth books you set them in the fifties, and have a woman protagonist. Was it difficult getting in the mind set to write these?

I enjoy history - and the 1950s ARE history - and I enjoy the challenge of trying to work out how people would think and feel in the past, the psychogical baggage they would haul around with them. I found it surprisingly easy to write from a woman's viewpoint (my wife helped here).

6) What made you first want to write? And why mysteries?

Writing (and imagining) fiction always came easily to me as a boy. And I enjoyed it. Also, I thought all authors could afford homes on several continents. Why crime? My parents read a good deal of it, and when I was very young I read and re-read some childrens' books which were really crime novels writ small. Corpses kept creeping into my first efforts at fiction.

7) Who are some of the authors you really enjoy?

Frances Fyfield, Reginald Hill, Patricia Highsmith, Chandler, Hammett, Conan Doyle, Tey, Allingham, Sayers, some Christie: I could go on for some time but I won't.

8) I think UK writers generally seem to write mysteries that are more emotionally driven than Americans. The characters are more cerebral. Why do you think that is?

I don't know. But a lot of British writers, myself included, feel that we're writing novels with crimes in them, as well as mysteries, which may account for a greater interest in what goes on in characters' head, moral issues, etc. But these are gross generalisations, and I wouldn't like to put much faith in them!

9) Do you have any writing rituals? A certain time of day, certain music on while you write?

I tend to write best in the late afternoon, early evening, when the creative machine has warmed up and is running smoothly. (Perhaps there's also an element of panic: a feeling that unless I get some words out I won't have much to show for the day's work.)

10) Does having children change they way you write? Does it give you a different perspective?

Yes and yes. There's a chapter in The Four Last Things when a mother comes to terms with the fact that her four-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. We have children of our own. In the light of that I wrote and rewrote that chapter with my wife's help. It was the most harrowing thing I've ever had to do. Shakespeare had it right: children are hostages to fortune.

11) Do you think there is any thing in the mystery genre that is over done?

The great problem with the genre is its inbuilt bias towards the formulaic. I try to avoid repeating myself. (But in The Judgment of Strangers I enjoyed mocking the conventions village green/Miss Marple mystery.)

12) How would you describe a perfect weekend?

Long walks and big books; maybe a film; good food and wine and music and conversation with friends; and at least one activity it would not be appropriate to describe in a respectable family interview.

13) I read that Bouchercon in DC was your first. What was your impression of the whole thing? Would you go again?

Wonderful to meet so many American readers. I enjoyed being back in the
US (first time for years and years) and Washington couldn't have put on nicer weather for us. An impressively organised conference. Very big, of course, but I suppose the trick is to circulate with your own core of friends. I'd definitely like to come again, though I'd have to find a way to justify the considerable cost.

14) What kind of changes have you noticed in publishing since you started writing?

Most publishers losing their independence and being swallowed up by a handful of international multi media conglomerates; rise in importance of agents; the internet - a revolution in the making; increasingly lean times for mid-list authors as publishers put pay larger and larger advances to fewer and fewer authors; decline in book funds of public libraries.

15) Are there any new authors out there that you think people should be keeping an eye on?

Lots. I judge the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Dagger for
best first crime novel so I read stacks of new work. Last year I particularly enjoyed Scott Phillips' Ice Harvest, Susannah Jones The Earthquake Bird and Elizabeth Woodcraft's Good Bad Woman.

16) Has any of your work been optioned for film or television?

Dougal, Roth and Lydmouth have all been optioned at various times. Someone wanted to make a French arthouse movie of Caroline Minuscule, which sounded wonderful but there was no money in it whatsoever so that fell through. The Dougal series came very close to making a TV series a few years ago. Someone's trying to do Roth at present - not an easy task, given the fact it moves backwards through a 40 year timescale: good luck to them but I'm not counting any chickens, just spending the option money.

17) I think people sometimes get the impression that writers have it pretty easy, just type a few hours a day, and then do whatever they want. But there’s a lot more to it, isn’t there?

I've been a full time writer for 20 years and I'm still amazed how little time I spend actually writing... instead I find myself planning, researching, answering phones, emails, letters, promoting, doing the accounts, feeding the cats, trying to tidy the ever mounting chaos in the room where I try to work. Maybe I need a secretary.

18) How extensive is your research? Do you enjoy doing research?

Research is a wonderful make-work. At present I'm writing The American Boy - set in the early 19th; one of the characters is the young Edgar Allan Poe when he was in England. It's a wonderful, fascinating period - England c.1820 - and the research endlessly tempts me from the writing. In general I try to do as much of my research as possible after writing the first draft of a novel - which is the point when I know the specific questions I need answered.

19) What kind of movies do you enjoy?

My all time favourite as a boy was The Alamo. Now it tends to be old black and white crime movies - Third Man, old noir ones etc, Hitchcocks; romantic comedies, crime (Double Exposure), anything from The English Patient to Bridget Jones.

20) If you were able to go back in time and talk to a teenage Andrew Taylor, what advice would you give him?

Be warier than I was about giving up the day job; be prepared to network and promote as well as write. Write daily, if you can, even when you don't want to, even when you don't know what to say. Don't wait for inspiration: inspiration usually comes with writing, not before it.

21) Do you have a favorite of your own work?
Usually the last book I've written ... this question is in fact hard to
answer - rather like which of your own children do you prefer. I am especially fond of The Barred Window and The Office of Dead. But I wouldn't like the other books to find out.

22) What is the one thing that’s always in your refrigerator?

beer