Thank you for agreeing to talk to Phoenix Book Reviews...
We know that "Fripp" is your first novel but that you have previously written extensively for both television and the stage. Which is your preferred medium and why?
Difficult one because I love writing in all three mediums. They each have their own rewards. When you write for television you get a huge audience and that's exciting. I love it when people write and say they enjoyed Fripp because I know how I feel when I'm reading a novel on a train or whatever, it's very personal and you can get completely locked into the world of the book. But I suppose the most rewarding of all must be when you sit in a theatre audience and hear people laughing at your lines up on the stage. Writing a comedy play is tough but you do have the rehearsal period to tighten things up so when it all works it's very satisfying. Although I've got to say that when it doesn't work it's a nightmare! And believe me I've had more disasters than successes.
"Fripp" has been (favourably) compared by many reviewers to the work of Tom Sharpe - do you find this personally irritating or a great compliment?
Well I don't actually think I write anything like Tom Sharpe but if others do then it has to be a great compliment! I think Tom Sharpe is one of our finest comic writers and to even be mentioned in the same breath as him is praise indeed. If we are similar, I suppose it's the farcical element of our work.
How difficult did you find it to write a humourous book? Did the humour come naturally to you or was it a case of constantly trying to be funny?
I think it's a recipe for disaster if you go out to make everything deliberately funny. In my opinion when writing a comic novel you have to follow the rules of writing any book and they are (1) Convincing characters and (2) Good storytelling. If you get that right then hopefully the humorous situations will follow. I tend to specialise in comedy and farce and that has it's own bedrock, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Fripp is very tightly plotted and the funny bits just rose out of the situation. I certainly didn't have a drawerful of funny set-ups that I weaved into the narrative.
We know that you wrote for the late Frankie Howerd - how difficult is it to write with one particular character in mind? Were you constrained by the need for your writing to "be" Frankie? How much were your actual words changed when performed?
Writing for Frankie Howerd was a joy although that is not to say that he wasn't a difficult man to work for. He was a very experienced comic and you had to tailor the material towards his strong personality. The easiest bit was knowing (like just about everyone in the country) how he performed his act. He had a very unique style of delivery and once you understood it, it wasn't too difficult to write the scripts that way. I think it's Barry Cryer who's gone on record as saying that if you didn't put the Oooohs and Aaahs and the Yes missuses in, Frank would ask why not and if you did he would say "Why have you put those in ? I do those. Don't put them in next time." And it was true. You couldn't win! I use to put them in actually, mainly for my own benefit. It was much easier when writing, say, a one hour TV special to have them in because it made the script flow better. Especially for TV executives to read before recording etc. Incidentally, it was the same when I wrote for Birds of a Feather. All three leading ladies (Quirke, Robson and Joseph) had their own rhythms of speech and you would just write their lines in that style. Once you got the hang of it, it was fairly straight forward. The difficult thing about writing good TV sit-com is coming up with gags and one-liners every 3 or 4 lines. It looks easy but I can tell you it's not. Every episode of Birds would go through 8 or 9 drafts before it was considered ready to film.
Would you like to tell us what you are working on at the moment? Any future plans and ambitions?
I'm actually writing a second Fripp novel Fripp and the Punk Toupee. I won't reveal the plot but I think it's a good one. My encouragement came from people who read Fripp and kept asking me "When's the next one coming out?"
Have you always wanted to be a writer? Did you train for any other profession as a 'proper' job?
I came to writing fairly late on. I left school and at first trained as a press photographer in the Midlands. Then I came to London and worked as an assistant to the producer Robert Stigwood who then was managing Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees but was shortly about to produce the films Saturday Night Fever and Grease. I then for some extraordinary reason changed my name to Riff Regan and started writing songs! I formed a punk band London with a friend of mine, drummer Jon Moss and we signed to MCA records. I was the singer. Then after a few years of making records and touring I went to Los Angeles for a holiday and met up with some film people and came back determined to be a writer. So I immediately stopped writing songs and started writing stage plays and TV scripts. It was that simple. Since then I haven't wanted to do anything else although I do work as a London Tour Guide as well. That's another thing I really enjoy doing. Showing people the history of London.
How difficult did you find it initially to get your work published? Any tips for other aspiring writers?
My first published work was my comedy play "Laugh? I Nearly Went to Miami!" which I sent unsolicited to Samuel French Ltd. They came to see it at a fringe theatre in London and bought the rights the next day! If you're writing a play it really is best to get it performed first before trying to get it published, especially if it's a comedy or a farce. That way you can iron out all the bugs. It can be a long road to get anything published. We've all been there. You send manuscripts off and they can sometimes take literally years to come back. Publishers aren't normally interested unless your manuscript is sent in by an Agent and Agents aren't usually interested unless you've got a proven track record. It's a hellish time and there's no easy solution. In the end you just end up doing what everybody else does, flicking through The Writers' and Artists' Year Book and sending stuff off. The only answer is perseverance. If I have one tip for aspiring writers it is this; If you don't get the book out there it ain't gonna get published!
Has any writer, living or dead, been a particular inspiration to you? Why?
So many writers have been an inspiration but I suppose the biggest impression on me has always been the American playwright Neil Simon. I got into him a long time ago when I spotted his name on the credits of old Bilko TV shows. I then started reading everything he had written from The Odd Couple to California Suite. To me he really is the greatest playwright around. He virtually invented the one-liner style that we now take for granted in TV shows like Frasier and Friends. And nearly all his plays have an autobiographical element to them. Which is great, because it means if you're a fan of the man you can almost jigsaw his life together by reading all his plays.
Who are your personal favourite writers? Why?
I know it's highly unfashionable but I love the Richard Gordon books especially the Doctor series. A lot of people accuse him of trying to be P.G Wodehouse and not succeeding but I think he writes in a thoroughly entertaining way. His plots are always good and he's created some memorable characters. Sir Lancelot Spratt is one of my favourites as is Dr Simon Sparrow. If you read Fripp you'll find that I named the Chief Superintendent after the latter. Another favourite of mine are the Tintin books by Herge. In my opinion Captain Haddock is simply one of the greatest comic creations of all time and should not be overlooked simply because he was a cartoon character. Herge gave him some wonderful lines and a most engaging character; the shortest temper known to man whilst at the same time being loyal, kind and, on occasions, extraordinarily brave.
Who is your favourite contemporary writer? Why?
I love anything by David Nobbs especially the Reginald Perrin books. His books have got a bit more serious of late but he always has this superb comedic style that makes you laugh outloud. I've just finished reading Going Gently, an extraordinary book set partly in Cornwall about an ill woman mentally reliving her entire life on the eve of her one-hundredth birthday. It's very funny yet very sad. Beautifully crafted. Pathos at its best.
Do you have one all-time favourite book? If so, what is it and what makes it a particular favourite?
It's got to be David Niven's autobiography The Moon's a Balloon. I remember the first time I read it just how funny it was. It wasn't ghost-written like so many film star's memoirs, Niven wrote it all himself and, of course, it made publishing history at the time because it became such an international best-seller. It's just very frank and hilariously funny. You can't help but feel familiar with his world because most of the characters in it (after he arrives in Hollywood) are household-name film stars like Bogart, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn et al. Basically it's this wonderful adventure that Niven had with this incredible supporting cast during Hollywood's golden era of the 30s, 40s and 50s. It's a big favourite of mine. I dip into it every couple of years.
Are writers born or created?
I would like to say they're born but I'm not totally sure. I remember that when I was a child I was incredibly imaginative in the make-believe games I would play with my friends and then later at school my best subject was always English composition. But despite this I didn't put pen to paper until I was in my late twenties. I suppose I got side-tracked with the rock 'n' roll thing and it's possible that back then I was allowing my literary side to come out through my song lyrics. One thing's for certain though, you can either write or you can't. Just like some people are incredible musicians and others are tone-deaf! I think there's a lot in your genes. My grandmother (who died before I was born) was a Fleet Street editor of a woman's magazine and wrote a few published plays and it's possible that any literary talent I might have has come down through her side of the family.
What are the best - and worst - things about being an author?
For me the best thing about being an author is always when the proofs arrive for correcting. No question about it. It's the first time you see that work in print and it's very exciting. Other good times are when you read a good review or when someone writes to you saying how much they've enjoyed your book. The worst thing from my point of view, and remember I specialise in farce, is plotting the story. Farces don't just go from A to Z. By their very nature they detour all over the place and some of those detours often end up in annoying cul-de-sacs! Fortunately these days with computers you can always go back and change things so that they tie up but it can be a long process. Sometimes that side of it is a nightmare but when it all works out and you read it back it's a wonderful feeling. Incidentally, I read the other day that Ian Fleming when writing his James Bond books just wrote them in one go (with no initial synopsis), corrected any mistakes in ink and then sent the manuscript off to his publisher. His concentration must have been extraordinary. I could never work like that. My books are initially like a huge artist's canvas. A bit of tinkering here, a bit of rewriting there. I tend to do a lot of back-writing. In fact when I first wrote Fripp I think it began where Chapter 2 now is. I wrote a whole new first chapter to start the book better.
Writing is a solitary occupation and can be a lonely life...how do you deal with this?
Fortunately I'm a solitary type of person so I don't find it a problem. I can only write when I'm on my own and there's nothing to disturb me. If there's a lot of noise going on around I won't write, I'll probably go out for a walk and run some ideas through my head instead. In fact some of my best sequences have come to me when I've been out walking.
Do you ever look for / find reasons not to write?
I'm afraid I do. As do most writers that I know. We'd all like to be prolific Agatha Christie's, Enid Blyton's or J.K. Rowling's knocking books out nineteen to the dozen but in my opinion most writers aren't. I suppose it's all down to personal discipline. The only time I don't look for reasons not to write is when I have a deadline to meet. But having said that there is no greater feeling than that moment when it all starts to flow and you just can't type the words out quickly enough. I must admit as I get older I'm getting better at finishing the job.
Which book (s) are you reading at the moment?
I'm reading Ben Elton's Dead Famous which is a clever Agatha Christie style whodunnit set in a televised Big Brother house. The idea is good; someone gets murdered in the House by one of the other contestants but how? With the cameras and TV audience continually watching it seems impossible. I won't reveal how it happens but it's pretty ingenious. The only criticism I have is that Ben Elton doesn't write female characters very convincingly. They all seem to be males that's he just gives a woman's name to.
Finally, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself - age, hobbies, family etc.
I'm in my forties, divorced and live in a riverside apartment in London's Docklands opposite the Millennium Dome. I love the city but I also like to be near water so it's ideal and there are some fabulous walks. I originally come from Falmouth in Cornwall and get down there as often as I can.
