Mark Billingham crime writer
Mark Billingham is one of Britain’s well established writers. His DI, (Detective Inspector), Tom Thorne novels have been spectacularly successful in the UK and abroad. He was the opening speaker on the Friday morning session of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate. He was also the winner of Best Crime Novel 2009 prize, awarded in the opening ceremony the previous night.
Early career
He was introduced by the author and Guardian crime fiction critic Laura Wilson, who quickly gave us Mark’s background. He was brought up in Birmingham, trained as an actor and appeared in a number of minor roles in episodes of TV showsDempsey & Makepeace, Juliet Bravo, Boon, and The Bill.] Afte finding himself playing a variety of “bad guy roles such as a soccer hooligan, drug addict, a nasty copper, a racist copper, or a bent copper”
He then moved into standup progressing from 5-minute, unpaid “try-out” spots to 10-, 20- and 30-minute paid slots. Within a year he played The Comedy Store on several occasions, where he also appears regularly as a Master of Ceremonies. This combined with a number of appearances on TV and radio, such as the only human face on the Spitting Image, “the taller half” of top double act “The Tracy Brothers” and appearences on the radio version of The Mary Whitehouse Experience.
In 1988, he was seen on the children’s comedy series News at Twelve, in which the central character “broadcasts his own (imaginary) TV news bulletin every evening. This led to his getting a part in Maid Marion and her Merry Men, which opened the door to his writing career.
Mark played the part of Gary, one of a pair of Sheriff of Nottingham’s henceman. With his colleague Graeme, played by David Lloyd, and were the “bestest mates”. Mostly they were extremely affable, but in the tradition of clever villains with idiot sidekicks, not very clever most of the time. They are often very friendly with the Merry Men, who tend to return the sentiment, except when Gary and Graeme are doing what they’re paid for. Graeme tended to enjoy things like torture and teasing the villagers more than Gary does, though Gary would challenge Graeme for the chance to do executions.
Although a children’s programme it was much appreciated by many adults, and has been likened to Blackadder, not only for its historical setting and the presence of Tony Robinson, but also for its comic style. It is far more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more (deliberate)anachronisms. Like many British children’s programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted, as well as witty asides about the Royal family, buses running on time, etc. interestingly the show was brought by American TV and shown at an 11:30 evening slot.
Moving into writing
Mark was actually paid to this erm – work. While on the set he got interested in writing and with the encouragement of Tony Robinson he developed his skills and contributed to the scripts. He then moved into writing scripts for children’s television. With David Lloyd he wrote and acted in episodes of Harry’s Mad (based on the book by Dick King-Smith) and with Peter Cocks wrote and co-starred in Granada TV‘s Knight School.
He described, with a lot of humour, his writing career. He reckons he owes a lot of his writing skills to his acting and particularly his standup experience. His main protagonist: London based Tom Thorne. He talked for quite a time about the getting the character right. It is cliche that a policeman investigating murder is flawed, but that is the reality of the job.
Structuring a book
The structure of a book is important and building tension as is bringing in unexpected twists. he gives a good example in the film Silence of the Lambs
- Towards the end of the film we see the SWAT team has got the address of the serial killer. They move into place around the house.
- Meanwhile Jody Foster, FBI agent, is going out to finish off a couple of loose ends, to tidy up the paperwork.
- The head of the SWAT team press the doorbell.
- We see the killer come from his basement up the stairs.
- We see the serial killer start to open the door.
- The SWAT team look tense.
- Then we realise that it is Jody at the right house and in serious danger.
This is a great example on film on how to throw the viewer. Writers need to do something similar to keep the interest in their books.
Characterisation
Mark described his main character anvil shaped, as in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Ton will retain the shape of the anvil after it has fallen on his head. Thorne has the psychological equivalent. A bad experieince will affect and develop the character over the series, which is a good reason once you’re hooked on the books to start at the beginning of the series with Sleepyhead
Research
Mark talked about research. There are certain things a writer has to get right. The characters in particular have to be believable. He will make a lot of effort to understand say how Alzheimer affects the individual and the family and friends of the individual.
However, he, and I strongly agree, dislikes authors who write the great ‘see my research’ tracks of their books. He quotes, and I also agree, though my wife will kill for saying so, that Kathy Reichs
Mark does warn that research is probably the greatest excuse not to write. He feels that some detail are not so important, such as ‘checking whether you can take a left turn at a certain point’ or as mark ruefully admits that there is not a Starbucks in Brixton. He does get complaints from readers, but as he points out – it is only a story.
He was asked how he research things he doesn’t know. He says he just asks people. He says he has a friend who is pregnant and he goes around and asks her how she’s getting on. ’Sore nipples’, get out the notebook write it down. ’Leakage’, get out the notebook and write it down.
Bad experience
Laura got Mark to talk about his most frightening experience. He was staying in a hotel in Manchester with his writing companion Peter Cocks. They decided to stay in one night and ordered beer and pizza. There was a knock on the door and three men wearing balaclavas burst in, beat them up and got the cash cards and pin codes. They were held over midnight so that the gang could maximise the withdrawals over two days. The crime was bizarre, the Manchester police had not come across a simialr incident. It was clear that the crime was an inside job and Mark suspects that the attackers thought they were possibly closet gays.
He has used the fear in his second book Scaredy Cat
Help for others
Besides writing books Mark is very active with the crime writing community. As I went around the Crime Festival I noted Mark organising people, encouraging, introducing and working quite hard behind the scenes to make sure the event was a success. He was also very active in Creative Thursday, the event for what people like my self, who are now called, prepublished authors.
Mark’s writing career to date
The first book, Sleepyhead, published in 2001, was an immediate bestseller.
The second novel, Scaredy Cat was published in July 2002 and was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried and Death Message. The newest novel, a standalone thriller called In The Dark is published in August 2008. Mark is at work on the next Tom Thorne novel called “Blood Line”
Links
Wikipedia Mark Billingham