John, thank you for talking to Phoenix Book Reviews. Firstly, tell us about your books...how many have you written and what kinds of books are they?
Take a deep breath...around the 20 mark. The majority are historical biographies published by Sutton (Stroud, Gloucestershire). Of these, the most recent was Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz (2001) about the Kaiser's parents. I dealt with him in Kaiser Wilhelm II (1999). Others from this category, at random, includeThe Romanovs 1918 - 1959: Tsar Alexander II and his Family (1998), King George II and Queen Caroline (1997), Kings of the Hellenes (1994), Queen Victoria's Children (1986), Dearest Affie: Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (1984) co-written with the late Bee Jordan, a retired librarian living in Denmark, and Crowns in a Changing World (1993), a general history of the European dynasties between 1901 and 1936. Sutton also published Gilbert and Sullivan's Christmas (2000), one in their extensive series of themed Christmas anthologies.
There are also four shorter books on rock music from local indie publishers, namely Roxeventies (Kawabata, 1982) about the seventies; The Roy Wood Story (1986) Singles File (1987) and Beyond the Summertime:The Mungo Jerry Story (1990), all A&F. There's also a select bibliography of works on Queen Victoria's Family (Clover, 1982), which was expanded from a course-assessed project I completed while at Ealing School of Librarianship.
Finally, Minerva are issuing my first novel, The Man on the Moor which was briefly available as an e-book and which we'll come to below.
Would you like to tell us what you're working on at the moment? Any future plans? Future ambitions?
I've just completed Once a Grand Duchess, a biography of Xenia, sister of Tsar Nicholas II, co-written ( largely thanks to e-mail) with historian Coryne Hall who lives in Hampshire. It's due out this summer and I'm currently discussing another couple of projects with Sutton. I've also written a synopsis for, and begun, a second novel which I'm writing in what you might call 'down-time' but that's the least of my current priorities.
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Almost as soon as I learned to read, I wanted to write. My mother never ceases to embarrass me by telling friends that I wrote my frst book called "Traffic" at the age of five. A few folded pages of scribbled words and drawings. She swears she's still got it somewhere! At school I was contributing short stories, poems and articles to the termly magazine and that led to editing ( as well as writing much of) The Ealing Library School magazines, followed by articles and reviews for the local and national press on a freelance basis from the mid-70's onwards. So I built up to books gradually.
At what age did you have your first book published?
My first, was published when I was 26. I began writing it a few days before my 22nd birthday.
How difficult did you find it initially to get your work published? Any tips for other aspiring authors?
A friend of mine at college told me about 20 years ago that nobody published books these days unless they were written by somebody with whom they had fallen in love with at university. No such luck for me. I did the usual twin policy of approaching publishers in London about Frederick, initially while I was still writing, then when it was completed; and also trying literary agents. Only one publisher asked to see it, several turned it down on the basis of my letter without asking to see it, and an agent took it on but had to return it after four other publishers had said no. A couple of years later I contacted Alan Sutton, a small regional publisher in Gloucestershire concentrating on history, who was just expanding his firm from a largely one-man reprints business to a larger concern issuing new non-fiction as well. Though he was not a vanity publisher, I agreed to help finance publication of my first three titles. This, I have been told by others, is by no means an exceptional instance. We're talking about the days before word processors and home computers became commonplace, and without being prepared to make some kind of financial sacrifice, a number of us authors simply wouldnt have made it into print at all.
As regards tips for other aspiring authors. There are pros and cons as regards going to publishers direct or literary agents first. I've read countless how-to guides and articles all giving me several good reasons why one is the right way and the other is wrong, so there is no simple answer. Just read and study what the relevant writers websites (Purefiction, for instance, which in my view is a must) have to say, plus the author's bible, Writers and Artists Year Book, and magazines like Writing News. Believe in yourself, don't give up, but be prepared to take advice as to how to improve your work or modify your approach. Take advantage of sites on the Net to which you can contribute, like ABCtales and dooyoo, where you can post your own writing, be it creative or factual, get feedback from others like yourself, and hone your writing skills. Give vanity publishers a wide berth, and if you think a business comes under this category, seek a second opinion. Finally, don't be afraid to consider self-publishing, but look very carefully at the financial implications. Above all, you need to be ultra-organised and pretty focused for this - and an ability to go without sleep might help too. Finally, read as much as you can. That sounds pretty obvious, but it helps you to learn and absorb, as well as stand back and analyse what you like or dont like about a particular book.
How do you go about researching your books?
Most of all, it's a matter of reading what else has been published on the subject, and seeing what new angles I can take. Access to previously unpublished papers always helps, though these aren't always available.
How do you actually write? Longhand, Typewriter, Word Processor? How many hours a week do you actually spend writing or researching on average?
Mostly on word processor these days, though scribbling down notes in longhand is often a good way to get the ideas flowing, as long as I don't lose them before I can type them up on disk. Ive still got a manual typewriter, but I've hardly touched it for ages, though I did all my drafts and manuscripts that way until the late 80s.
Where does your inspiration come from?
In the case of my non-fiction works, it's often been a matter of filling a gap, i.e. taking someone individual who has been neglected before, or a broad area which can be tackled in a new way. Some of my titles have been ideas suggested by the publisher, some by myself, and we modify them to a certain extent.
The novel came about in an interesting way. Some years ago we were having a family lunch in the pub, and my mother mentioned having been walking on Dartmoor and seeing a memorial stone erected to a man found dead there in 1913, apparently of natural causes. This set our historical minds off on various different trains of thought, and I suggested that if it was 1913, maybe he had connections with those in high places and somebody wanted him out of the way. Some time later, I decided "there's a full story in that."
Has any writer, living or dead, been a particular inspiration to you? Why?
Theo Aronson, one of the top historical biographers of our time. He's now more or less retired. But his books were an inspiration in that they were not only so well-researched but thoroughly readable. He made his characters come alive with plenty of anecdote and personality, yet without dumbing down. I met him some years ago and have corresponded with him ever since. He's always been unfailingly helpful - a real diamond of a man.
Who are your personal favourite writers? Why?
I've always had a weakness for P.G. Wodehouse. His novels and short stories are pure escapism - fun to read, farcical without a hint of malice, and above all that delightful turn of phrase. On the other hand, I also like the stories of Saki - the master of black humour. As regards non-fiction, it's difficult to single out favourites, as I normally read according to subject.
Who is your favourite contemporary writer? Why?
I'm getting heavily into E.V. Thompson at present. A historical novelist specializing in Devon and Cornwall-based stories set in the 19th and early 20th centuries - where I'm concerned, the perfect combination.
Do you have one all-time favourite book? What makes it a favourite?
A difficult one. But I was brought up partly on the William books, I've still got them in my bedroom, and I'm always dipping into them for light relief. The humour never goes stale for me.
Are writers born or created?
Born, with reservations. You've got to have the passion and the desire to express yourself in the written word, that makes authorship a pleasure rather than a chore. I suppose you can be taught to write, if it's somewhere deep down inside you, but that's an impossible thing to quantify. You can teach yourself to drive, or teach yourself computing. But if you have that gift in the first place, I'd say it's more a matter of simply applying yourself.
What are the best - and worst - things about being an author?
The best? Nice fan letters, from people saying how much they appreciate your books. Your name in print on the jacket, in the bookseller's window, on the cheque, on the Public Lending Right statement. Being able to show someone a book or an article and say "I did it."
The worst? Bad-tempered reviews, especially from people whom you've helped in the past. Radio interviews, where you don't have the chance to prepare answers, and a natural state of sheer nerves is compounded by being thrown by a particularly mind-numbing first question. Having to file and keep receipts and other paperwork for the accountant. Letters or party-chat from people who are convinced that, just because you're an author, you can help them to get their book published, even if they haven't got around to writing it as they waste too much time telling other people that they'll do it "one day". But it's not like that all the time!
Writing can be a lonely life - how do you deal with this?
I have a day job, though for the last five years it's been part-time, 40 weeks per year, so I'm not totally cut off. I always look forward to visits to London once or twice a year when I can meet up with friends, and I get out in the local community with various things like helping at the new year's eve party, involvement with one-offs like writing songs for a children's musical, and so on - activities which don't encroach too heavily on writing time but are fun to do as well as work with others. Having said that, I like my own company, and I won't be parted from my writing too long.
Do you ever look for / find reasons NOT to write?
Do you ever look for or find reasons not to eat or breathe?
Successful authors can earn a lot of money and live a comfortable life. How far is money a motivating factor - or would you write regardless?
I know Dr Johnson said that no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. Even so, I think writing's a vocation - you do it because youre driven. The financial rewards are certainly to be savoured - after all, it's hard work when you really make the effort to produce the best you can. But I know, and know of, several authors who are definitely not wealthy. We would all write regardless, I'm sure.
Which book(s) are you reading at the moment?
Ive got round at last to reading Antonia Fraser's King Charles II, which I bought ages ago. The last novel I read was Lynn Doyle's Friends Indeed, a superb, moving tale of two young women in 1860s Ireland. And as a dip-into, rather than to read from cover to cover, Keith Badman's The Dream Is Over, a book about the Beatles as individuals from 1970s onwards, through interview quotes and writings by others, is hard to resist.
