Does satire work?
I’m just finishing a book about satire. Satire is flourishing. We satirists like to think that we change things – ideally for the better. But for all the fuss, does satire work? Can 3,000 years…
Dark night of the soul? Review of Louise Doughty’s Platform Seven
I like dark stories. I have no problem with light stories, either, but there’s something about a novel or a film that is unafraid of the night, literal or metaphorical. Louise Doughty is one of…
Behind the Headlines: From Britain to Hollywood (and back)
All my life I’ve been telling stories. At first, I made up stories to get out of boring homework, or playing sports at school… and almost got myself expelled. Then, I found that in fiction…
Impress your friends – Your biggest eReader problem solved at last
The Harris Institute for Social and Self-Improvement For Individuals and Teams (HISSIFIT) has been working overtime on solving one of the major techno-problems of our age. You buy your highly specified Kindle, Nook or other…
How to create a character that lives
This week I talked to Bonnie D Graham on her radio programme Read My Lips. (You can listen to the recording here) As often happens, she wanted to know how I create the characters for…
Review: Joe Country by Mick Herron
Publishers, agents and readers love a running series. Like a fast food outlet a good series promises a regular supply of what you love. A McNovel. Mick Herron hit a rich vein of dark spy…
Your social media problems solved
Having a problem keeping up with your social media demands? No time to tweet? Embarrassed at sending out-of-fashion-emojis or misunderstanding the meaning of LOL? My personal development lab – The Harris Institute for Social and…
Finnish humour. Review of Palm Beach Finland by Antti Tuomainen
Last year, I sat with the Finnish novelist Antti Tuomainen on a panel for the literary festival Newcastle Noir. Tuomainen is a massive name in his home country and is enormously funny to listen to,…
The roller-coaster ride of publishing a novel
It’s not often that a writer gets to blow his own trumpet, but it’s the second anniversary of the publication of The Breaking of Liam Glass and much to celebrate and be grateful for. My…
Today’s real pirates of the Caribbean
Crime is exotic, exciting, fun – unless you’re on the wrong end of it. And no criminals are more exotic and adventurous than pirates. So, when I was researching a new novel last week and…
Paris by noir – Review: Clementina by Simon Cann
Last week I wrote about honesty in writing – how it is the difference that makes the difference. No amount of clever plotting or literary fireworks will make up for a lack of truth. Today…
Ukraine elected a comedian president – so what do politicians think of voters?
Last Sunday, the voters of Ukraine elected a comedian president. Volodymyr Zelenskiy won the election despite having zero experience of politics, aside from taking the role of president in a TV series. We voters are…
How truth-telling in Chicago led to a unique new law
On February 9th 1982, a man grabbed a Chicago policeman’s gun in the street and shot him and his partner dead. A city-wide investigation led to the arrest of two brothers – Andrew and Jackie…
How to stop innocent people getting shot
In his fascinating book on our unconscious instincts, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell starts one chapter with the shooting of sidewalk peddler Amadou Diallo by New York police in 1999. Race was, of course, an element. But what…
Into The Mirror and beyond
Like all writers, I get invited to festivals, book clubs and bookshops to talk about the stories I’ve written, stories that have taken me to Hollywood and back. It was one such story that unexpectedly…
Death by Monet: Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi
Black Water Lilies review The struggles of three women – a child, a school-teacher and an elderly woman about to be widowed – intertwine in this award-winning crime thriller which takes place over 13 days…
What can we learn from the murder capital of Europe?
Just this week I heard from my neighbourhood network about yet another death from stabbing, close by in Islington. Knife crime in London reached an all-time high last year and 2019 seems to be going…
Word power
Last week, I watched a preview of the new movie Vice – a riveting and at times shocking dramatisation of the life of one of the most powerful men most of us have hardly noticed…