Today we are meeting David Palin, a UK author who I first encountered when I took part on the book tour for “Let The Games Commence” (read my review) arranged by the fabulous Kelly at Love Books Tours. Armed with a list of pertinent questions, join me as we dig deep to find out what makes David tick.
We’re talking as Let The Game Commence is being released in paperback – tell me about this book (which I loved by the way) – what was your inspiration? Did you know the ending before you began writing or did the story evolve and take on a life of its own?
Well first, let me say thank you for your positivity about the book. When I’m writing, I try never to forget the reader. I guess there’s a danger that writing can be self-indulgent, but what good is a story without a ‘listener’?
I’m never sure whether ‘inspired’ is the right word – something sparks my imagination and the rest grows from there. With Let The Game Commence, I can remember very specifically what got me thinking. As you’ve read the book you’ll know exactly what I’m referring to. When I moved into a pedestrianised close many years ago, the first Christmas, I popped a card through everyone’s letterbox. One of the neighbours who lived on his own, and whom another neighbour described as weird, came to thank me and said I was welcome to pop over for a drink sometime. Like the best laid plans of mice and men it never happened and then I heard a few months later that he had died. I felt very guilty. Now, the character of Andrew Hansen in LTGC is not based on me, but you can see a clear connection with that incident. It got me thinking about the nature of people’s interactions and how, beneath the sometimes superficial niceties of society, there is often a dark underbelly.
The other influence for me came from having read Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’ where the eponymous hero sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge. The idea just came to me about someone doing the same in the exchange for exacting some revenge.
I find stories are organic for me – they have a life of their own to an extent and often create the characters they need. So, to answer your question, for this story, and others I’ve got out there, I know the direction in which the ending lies, but the route towards it can often bend, change and adapt – just as in life. Some people like to plan every detail of a story; that’s not for me, as it leaves little room for imagination. I was delighted to read in The Guardian about the technique of Gillian Flynn, author of ‘Gone Girl’ as it mirrors what I believe and how I try to write. If I may quote:
It’s surprising – given the way that the denouements of Flynn’s novels make you feel as if the truth had been hiding in plain sight all along – that she doesn’t plot them in advance, instead pursuing numerous dead-ends and “writing the equivalent of two books for every one that gets published”
Who is your favourite character in Let The Game Commence? And overall, from all the books you have written?
Sepp Stoehlheim – he is what he is from beginning to end. The other characters are all slaves to their weaknesses and ultimately that makes them all slaves to him. He is the rock on which all their ships flounder. He represents something ancient and unchanging, i.e. the worst in all of us. As he says towards the end of the book: “…there will always be a place in this universe for me.”
As far as my other books are concerned, that’s a toughie. I love Ilsa Wlich in ‘The Half-Torn Page’ as she’s this strong woman of mystery who encounters all the bad things the 17th Century threw at women, including accusations of witchcraft, and turns a very self-important town in Bavaria on its head, uncovering its darkness and making it answer to time and the world for its arrogance. What I like about her is that in her absence she lives also through the actions of others, including a boy called Karl, whose life she saves.
I’d like to mention in passing that DCI Ben Logan of ‘This Changed Everything’ and ‘The Armistice Killer’ is up there too. He’s a damaged, deep character – he suffers prosopagnosia (facial blindness) and has to hide that in plain sight.
What, in terms of your writing are you most proud of?
Just having succeeded in getting published really. I suppose it’s nice when something you wrote finds a reflection in reality at some later point in life. For example, in ‘The Half-Torn Page’, the town I mentioned before is cursed and forced to exist in isolation. The townsfolk have to adapt to seeing the same things and people day in, day out, discovering much about themselves in the process. That novel was published a year before lockdown, which was almost a case of truth mirroring fiction.
Was it always your ambition to become a writer? If you weren’t a writer what would be your dream job?
I’m not aware that it was an ambition, more like a passion. Even when I was first trying to get published, I didn’t let the rejections, the chance that it would never happen, stop me being creative. In fact, it took a kick up the backside from a work colleague of mine to help me try to become a success. I mention on my website that I was driving up north and chatting with a female colleague twenty years ago. In the car, I told her I had handwritten a story and she was amazed that I had written, in her words, ‘a novel’, which I had shoved into a box somewhere and pretty much forgotten about. She set me a deadline; gave me a week to dig it out and start trying to do something with it. I was 41 then and have written fourteen novels since, so I owe her!
My dream job? Bass guitarist in a band like Radiohead!
What are you working on currently?
I have just completed the audiobook for ‘Let The Game Commence’ – Matthew James Publishing were happy for me to read it. Otherwise, well, believe it or not, I’m rewriting that original novel that my colleague told me to find! I’ve decided it needs setting in different times from the original. I’m about 25,000 words into that.
Who are your favourite authors? Who do you automatically pre-order without even bothering to look at the synopsis?
I’ve had a lot less time to read since the writing took over. I’ve always enjoyed the work of Robert Harris and Ken Follett. I’ve read a huge amount of Stephen King. Looking at older stuff, I did my university dissertation on the work of Joseph Conrad. Where non-fiction is concerned, Antony Beevor and William Dalrymple have always appealed.
If you were to write an autobiography, which would be the chapter you enjoyed recounting the most?
While it’s tempting to think about my 40s, when I had a prolific time in terms of my writing, I think my school and university days would be the chapter. The 1970s were my teens. It was a time of social upheaval, crazy fashion, fantastic music, both in the pop world and rock (my first gig was Led Zeppelin!) I was lucky enough to listen to and love Genesis, Roxy Music, The Police, Yes, ELP, while we also had disco and punk!
Then there were the events that shaped me. I was bullied badly in my first year at grammar school, but (to borrow from Nietzsche) what does not kill me makes me stronger and I fought through that, even ending up as the school rugby captain. At 15, I saw my father die from a horrible cancer. I think one of the reasons I write strong female characters is that it was my mum, my sister and me against the world from that point and we all had to support each other. They were indomitable.
What was also a fantastic experience for my self-development was spending the third year of my degree course in Germany, teaching English. I had never been overseas before, so to live there and have to earn your way, speaking a foreign language, was a huge deal. Also, I was lucky that I was based right on the edge of the Black Forest, so scenically it was fantastic. I travelled a lot as well. Being in the land of the Grimm Brothers probably fuelled my dark imagination. Anyone who has read ‘The Half-Torn Page’ will recognise that influence.
If Let The Game Commence was to be turned into a movie or mini-series on TV, who would you like to see in the main roles?
Good question! If I’m allowed to travel in a time capsule for the first answer, when I started writing it some time ago I pictured Max von Sydow as Stoehlheim, but he’s no longer with us. I think Charles Dance would be great in that role. I think Eddie Redmayne or Kit Harington would be good as Andrew Hansen, as they portray intelligent sensitivity very well. Dolly Wells would be cracking as Yvonne Elmer. The most difficult one to get my head round is Arthur, but I think Andrew Scott would nail that.
Now I just need to add…..in my dreams!
Thanks for your time David, it has been really interesting. For a West Ham fan, you have a fabulous mind…! (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
Leave a Comment