An Interview With Peter May (2/3) By Steve Rudd

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3)

And if I thought they were strange, they thought I was even stranger - a six foot-two Scot with a ginger beard and fair hair. I had crowds of a hundred and more people following me in the street. I knew then that I wanted to write about China. So I read everything I could about the place and in '91, just two years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, went to Beijing in search of a story. But it was another five years before the story idea and the place came together to become The Firemaker. How is it that you manage to crank out so many great stories in such seemingly short periods of time?

I try to write a book a year. Last year I wrote two. But it's not so much that I'm driven to write - it's more a need to pay the bills!

You have recently finished writing your first book in a brand new series of seven, with you currently working on the second one. Is this series going to be set in China too, and how is it that you can keep generating so many fresh ideas for these books with regurgitating past plot-lines? The new series is set in France, where I live. The first in the series is called Extraordinary People, the title coming from Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment', where the murderer argues that only ordinary people are bound by the law, and that extraordinary people are above it. As far as ideas are concerned, you always have to keep fresh by moving on.

It would be too easy to keep on writing the same characters who have proven successful in the past, and end up being jaded and dull. I'm a news junkie, I read a lot, I'm interested in medicine and science, so there's always plenty to feed the imagination.

What prompted your relocation to France, and do you think you'll ever be tempted to return to live in Scotland at any point in the future? I've always had a love affair with France. I've been coming here for more than thirty years, but it was a brutal five-year period in the nineties that finally persuaded me to come and live here. My wife and I lost all four parents during that five years - the culmination of long and difficult illnesses. My sister had moved away to the south of England, and my wife's brother was in America.

So we were left to look after the ailing parents. And when it was all over we had no family left in Scotland. But it wasn't hard leaving friends behind - they all wanted to come out and see us here. And do, regularly. I think I would have to say, too, that the weather was a consideration. After all those years rusting in the damp west coast of Scotland, long hot summers have a definite appeal. I can't see myself ever going back.

Do you think that your work fits into the 'Crime Thriller' scene at large with ease, or do you prefer for your work to be regarded as being literally in an extraordinary league of its own? I don't think of what I do as being extraordinary. I write crime thrillers. In them I like to explore ideas and issues that affect us all. Most of my stories are about taking ordinary people and putting them under extraordinary pressure, and then seeing how they react. I've never really thought of myself as a 'writer'. I see myself as a storyteller. An entertainer. If I had lived five thousand years ago, I'd have been the one sitting round the campfire every night telling stories.

Do you enjoy the meticulous research that you undertake in order to ensure paramount authenticity in your writing, or can the research side of things become a bind? The research is the fun part. I was trained as a journalist, so I am never daunted by research. And I pride myself on getting all my facts, and my locations, right. I never write about a place I haven't been to, and I never write about a subject I haven't researched thoroughly - often with the help of world experts in their field.

Continued .... Next Page (3/3)

People, Interviews - Interview with Tokyo Dragons By Michelle Dee
	Tokyo dragons are definitely not like The Smiths, lets just clear that one up. They play a brand of loud ballsy U.S. rock circa 1995, maybe like G.n'R. or Aerosmith with a bit of Kiss thrown in. It's been a while since I checked out the mainstream rock scene. These guys have been going for four years and hail from N.W. London Read more...

People, Interviews - Interview With The Paddingtons By John-Paul Nicholas. Photographs - The Paddingtons at The Adelphi By Darren Rogers
	They look like The Clash used to. They look like The Stone Roses' evil twins. They look like a gang. And they are as tight as a gang, finishing each other's sentences and putting across their points individually, knowing that they speak for the band as a whole. Acting as spokesman Lloyd says What I fuckin' hate about music magazines is Read more...

People - Ellie Beill - Move In Direct
	My name is Ellie Beill. When asked by thisisUll.com to write an article on myself I was unsure. But here goes ... The property market has always fascinated me. I think it comes from moving house eight times before I was 18 (that averages a move every 2.25 years!). So I guess Read more...

People - Sleaze Queens - Inside Story, Outside World at Dukes March 3rd 05.By Michelle Dee
	Two bright, young, rock n roll girls, are bidding to become the best Djs in town. They have been making a name for themselves at the Sweet n Sour night, on alternate Saturdays at Silhouette for a number of months. Sparkly Mel and Sultry Kat bring a selection of tantalizing tunes Read more...

People - Interview with John Robb By Steve Rudd
	John Robb: is a legendary figure in punk-rock circles, having been at the forefront of making some fantastic music since the age of sixteen, when he co-founded The Membranes in Blackpool. Since then John has been involved in allsorts of interesting projects Read more...

People, Interviews - Fifty Nine Violets at the New Adelphi By Michelle Dee
	Their Christmas card lists run to half a dozen names, they have a penchant for blowing up amps; they are a thrilling live experience; they are of course the Fifty Nine Violets: from Barton upon Humber, North Lincolnshire. For the majority of Read more...

People - DJ Chris Plant
	DJ Chris Plant started his professional musical career back in 1996, although his passion for music began when he was just seven years old. The 22 year old from Kirkella has wanted to be a DJ for as long as he can remember and has travelled the globe Read more...

People - Interview with The Ga*Ga*s at Asylum By Andy Dykes
	I walk into Asylum in the middle of a soundcheck. There are people all over the place, any number of whom look like they could be a roadie, or the member of a band, or a vagrant. Never before having met any of the people I am about to interview, figure a bit of Read more...

People, Interviews - The Johnsons - A Band Is Born By Michelle Dee
	Once upon a time, in a garage not far away, four young men came together and began to play rock and roll music. In eight days they had a show to do. Time was of the essence and if they could only withstand the pressure, the ambitious Read more...

People - An Interview With Torso Horse By Steve Rudd
	Torso Horse, for those people who don't know, are a Goth-Metal band from Bridlington. They have been plying their trade for about five years now, and in the past couple of years in particular they have become very well known indeed: both in and around Read more...

People - Computerman at Fairview Recording Studios By Michelle Dee
	Computerman are a Nottingham band, who have been on the scene since January 2004. They recently came to Hull, specifically to Fairview Studios in Willerby, to record an eight-track demo CD. The demo will include tracks: Increasingly so, No recover Read more...

People - An Interview with Jim Eldon - Local Enigma By Jane Foster
	Jim Eldon is a musician living in East Hull who, I'm told, doesn't normally do interviews .... so a rare request it was that was received by thisisUll.com, from Andy his agent, for someone to do the deed. This email was passed on to me, as Jim is a singer Read more...

People - Caz Meets The Walnut Dash By Caroline Murphy
	And now to the Walnut Dash. So who are these people who text me at the eleventh hour and expect me to drop everything and come and interview them! Well actually they're extremely entertaining people, and their music is bloody brilliant! Read more...

People - Caz Meets Active-M By Caroline Murphy
	The last time I was in London, I chanced to meet Donny Osmond and Will Young. This time, however, by design, I met two bands far more closely aligned to my own musical taste, in the form of Active-M and The Walnut Dash. Read more...

People - An Interview With Steve Hamilton By Steve Rudd
	If you like reading novels that are packed with an exhilarating sense of action, adventure and intrigue, then you might already have heard of Steve Hamilton. Steve is a hugely respected and genuinely talented author who has Read more...