An Interview With Local Writer Ian Newton (2/6) By Jane Foster

(1/6), (2/6), (3/6), (4/6), (5/6), (6/6).

How long have you been writing and what inspired you to first start? I have been writing since I was about 20. My first full book was called The Silent Backlash and, believe this or not, was a 'factional' book about the rise of a fictional Party in Britain called the British National Party, which coincided with the rise in a secret Moslem fundamentalist organisation called The Moslem Brotherhood, that assassinated the top party officials to stop them getting into power.

No-one would publish it, so I photocopied the draft and sold it on street corners. I sold about 400 copies. How's that for predicting the future? I ended up getting picked up by Special Branch and that is another story, but there are two Special Branch Officers in Hull who we had some good fun with and some laughs.

As regards inspiration to write, I always felt that I wanted to do something creative, and I had a bent for words. But it's a thankless task as anyone will tell you who writes, and getting your stuff published as 'Nobody From Hull' is nigh impossible. By the time I was in my forties I was really frustrated as a writer, but still determined to get something published. I had this brilliant idea for a TV drama about a group of factory workers who would bring down the government for the money. It was a totally fictional idea and I managed to get called to Yorkshire TV to see a producer who told me straight the idea was ridiculous.

I smouldered for a couple of years on this idea, and my pizza company had gone to the wall, so I found myself working in a factory to pay the mortgage. Then fate took over and someone said there was a World In Action journalist sniffing around trying to dig up stuff on John Prescott. I had this most mad idea. Why not make my idea happen in real life, and try to bring down John Prescott for the money. The surprising thing about all this is that when I put it to the lads in the factory they thought I was mad. But I had this other agenda going on which I did not tell the lads about. I would direct this idea into a movie without a camera.

The idea was to make a media event by setting up John Prescott and Alistair Campbell, and to con them into sending the press after us and so create a real event in history. Anyway what surprised me was how easy it was to dig up stuff on Prescott. You have to remember why the lads were so successful in beating seasoned journalists to the story. We were all local people and had family and friends working in places that kept confidential information. If we wanted some document, someone always had a friend or family working at the place so they just 'borrowed' it.

Considering The Sunday Times had an undercover journalist living in Hull for a year, whose name was Trump, as a Labour Party worker and he found nothing. The press generally had swarmed all over Hull and also found nothing. With our limited resources and in our short time researching John Prescott, we got a bag full of documents and sold them to the press. We then created one hell of a media scramble that went around the world. Now you guessed it, we had absolutely no trouble in getting a publisher for our book about John Prescott called Dustbingate. John Prescott unfortunately for him was local, handy and famous, and we cast him as the lead in a reality movie.

John Prescott does not know that and might be interested to read this site. But I think Angus Young of The Hull Daily Mail has got an inkling.

Continued ...Next page (3/6)

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