I had rather an annoying wee hangover today, making the day job a major inconvenience and the two events I had booked at the Edinburgh Book Festival less appealing than I would have preferred. Still, I battled on and got the best out of the day, despite my flagging brain.

After a rough morning in the day job, I headed up to Charlotte Square for my half past one event with Mark Billingham. Mark is well known for a lot of things, including TV writer and stand-up comic, but more so these days as the best selling crime writer of the DI Tom Thorne novels.

Mark started off with a hilarious set reading out some of the letters he receives and his responses to them. They ranged from the straight forward, “your book is shite”, to “why does there have to be so much swearing?” to the utterly insane ramblings of a Dutchman, which I can’t even paraphrase it was that mental. He made a good point, though, when he says he can’t understand people who are happy to read about murder, child abuse, torture, or other horrific things, yet still feel the need to complain when the word “fuck” is used three times on the one page. Putting on a funny voice, he said :“My enjoyment of your rape and murder novel was ruined by the amount of bad language it contained. So I promoted your book to the trash and threw it out after three pages. Go and get yourself a dictonary if you can’t think of other words to use.” To which Mark replied: “I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy my book, but perhaps if you read further than the first three pages you might have seen how the swearing was justified in the context. Thank you for letter, but I think it is you who needs the dictionary since seem unable to even spell the word. Now, fuck off. Best regards, Mark.”

Mark’s new book, In The Dark, is his first standalone crime novel, something he seems to have the luxury to choose he can do and the publisher will go with it. He seems to have a heck of a lot of freedom to write what he wants, and seems to be under no pressure to continue churning out DI Thorne novels.

The thing I like about Billingham’s work is his attention to detail of an urban setting. His Thorne novels are set in London and you really get a sense of place with his books, and with that place being London, it makes it more enjoyable for me since I love the place.

Also, he spends a lot of time researching his books. “I feel I owe it to the reader to give them the time that some research demands,” he said, when asked if once his character’s battle with Alzheimer’s was based on real life experience. In his latest novel, he was able to set up a meeting with young lads from gangs in London involved in some extreme violence, through which he was able to get a feel for their attitudes, way of life, and dialect.

It was actually Billingham’s research conducted while writing Lifeless, a novel that looked at the London homeless problem, which gave me the confidence to talk to homeless hostels and some homeless people here in Edinburgh, while I was writing Hunting Jack.

With several hours in between events I went back into work then headed back for the 5pm event, a seminar called Trends in Publishing. Chaired by Jenny Brown (local literary agent), the event saw a select panel each talking to the audience, before opening up the floor to questions. The panel, which consisted of Marion Sinclair (Chief Executive, Publishing Scotland), Keith Charters (MD, Strident Publishing), and Bob McDevitt (Publisher with Hachette Books Scotland), actually proved to be of more value than I expected.

The main things I took from the discussion were:

Yes, read your contemporaries, but don’t try to emulate them – get your own voice

Try and write something unique and original

Don’t write for the market, write for yourself. Your voice and passion will be lost in the work otherwise, which is what appeals to publishers

Genre fiction is highly sought after

Historical fiction I highly sought after

Nature writing is on the increase

The impending UK recession will be good for publishing, because traditionally when there is a recession, people buy more books

Strong market conditions, book reader demands, national attitudes, and the strong creative/artistic base the country has developed, is good for publishing and writers.

There has never been a better time to be a writer in Scotland, because Scottish publishing is going through a golden spell.

To top the night off I watched a TV programme, Profiling Ian Rankin. All this week, ITV3 are showing the Rebus dramas as well as programmes about Rankin, who is up for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards: seven weeks of programming celebrating the crime genre in books, film, and TV, culminating in the Crime Thriller Awards in October.

In a refreshing interview with Rankin, he spoke of his early days doing his writing apprenticeship up until Black & Blue was published, which propelled him into the big time, saved his career, and winning him several awards including the coveted Gold Dagger. Speaking from his home in Edinburgh, he talked in depth about his most famous creation, Detective Inspector John Rebus, and mentioned that he had recently found out Edinburgh had a Cold Case Unit, which “Rebus would be perfect for”.

He allowed the cameras into his study, showing off his OBE, Crime Dagger awards, and various mementos collected along the years. He showed us his first edition hardback copy of Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which when it was personally signed by Spark, Rankin described as being very significant to him since he had been “pretending to study her for three years” when he was in fact writing his own fiction.

The programme saw him reunited with old tutors and friends, with commentary from his contemporaries, Val McDermid, Denise Mina, and the man I was earlier in the day, Mark Billingham. The thing that came across most from other writers talking about Rankin, was how they all appreciate his ability to set a powerful scene in a subtle way, incorporate a strong sense of location, include social commentary without the reader even realising it, and his ability to get under the skin of his characters.

Over the next few weeks ITV3 have profiled the other contenders for the award, including Val McDermid, Colin Dexter, PD James, Ruth Rendell , and Lynda La Plante.

Greener is the Grass (Writing)



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