The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Richard, our favourite reluctant spy and even more reluctant poet Rufus Varro is back – and there’s been a murder. Why was Assassin a story you wanted to add to the Spies of Rome series? I partly wanted to write a novella that was in the mold of Steven Saylor's Roma...
Deborah Lawrenson on The Secretary What drew you to the Cold War era specifically, 1958 Moscow, as the setting for The Secretary? Growing up around the world as an embassy child, I was always aware that my parents were living an unusual and interesting life. My...
David, your novel follows a British battalion on its tour of Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Why did you want to write about this difficult period in British and Irish history? To some extent the Troubles are a forgotten ‘war’ and quite unlike almost any...
Simon, A Death in Berlin is the latest in your new series featuring Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke. It's a very pacey and compelling novel. Would you like to start by giving an overview of the plot? I was looking at the underworld in Weimar and Nazi Germany. One of...
Marek, many congratulations on the new book, The Stories Old Towns Tell. Why did you choose the seven cities (Frankfurt; Würzburg; Rothenburg ; Prague; Warsaw; Lublin and Vilnius) – did you use a set of criteria, or was it your own experiences of visiting them? Thank...
So, we are back in Tomis – will there be another murder to be solved by the Roman love poet Ovid? Oh yes! I was chatting about this the other day with some fellow crime writers, and we decided that the ideal detective and hero for a mystery series is – a writer. There...
Anne, many congrats on the new novel. We’re in England in the early 1450s and just at the start of the Wars of the Roses. Queen Margaret and Anne, Countess of Warwick are the main two characters. What was the genesis of the story? The battles and political struggles...
James Dunford Wood, what first attracted you to the 1930s and beyond? I inherited a set of war diaries written by my father, covering 1939-1946 and RAF campaigns in Iraq, Burma and North-West Europe. Can you tell us a little about your research? For my book The Big...
Barney Campbell, on The Fires of Gallipoli Barney, many congrats in the new novel. This is your second after the acclaimed Rain which was set during the conflict in Afghanistan. Now with The Fires of Gallipoli you’ve written about the Great War. This was a hugely...
Jim Loughran, what first attracted you to the 1930s and beyond? The 1930’s were a turning point. I think back to my own mother who was born in 1911 when the German, Austrian, Russian and Ottoman empires still stood. The Second World War created a definitive break with...
