TGtB Meets...RJ Ellory

We chatted with bestselling author RJ Ellory about his accomplishments as one of Britain's most popular crime fiction writers. During his career Ellory has won handfuls of literary awards including the UK's top crime-writing prize. His latest novel The Devil and The River is in shops now.

What inspired you to become an author?

Well, I think any writer is first and foremost a great reader.  I read voraciously as a child.  I had an odd upbringing, having never met my father, and then my mother died when I was seven.  I was cared for initially by my maternal grandmother (my maternal grandfather drowned before I was born), and my grandmother sent me to various boarding schools and orphanages. 

I was not a communicative child and I lacked confidence, very definitely.  I buried myself in books, to be honest.  When I came home from school for holidays, I would spend the time with my grandmother, and she was a huge fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood.  I spent those formative years watching Cary Grant, James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson and the rest of those greats.  Even now, I am sharing those same films with my sixteen year-old son, and he has commented time and again how great the scriptwriting is.  It was that combination of reading and watching films written by great writers (‘Strangers on a Train’ as a case in point; based on a book by Patricia Highsmith, scripted by Raymond Chandler, directed by Hitchcock...what more could you ask for?) that must have had a significant effect on me. 

I never thought about writing until I was in nearly twenties. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, just that I wished to pursue something creative, and then when I was twenty-two I happened to have a conversation with a complete stranger about a book they were reading. The enthusiasm with which they spoke of this really had a significant effect on me. It was as if someone had switched a lightbulb on in my head, and I knew that that was what I wanted to do. In my case, it was many years before I got a book published but that was the point at which I was inspired to write.

Most of your books take place in the USA - any plans for a British based thriller?

Simple answer, no.  I think I grew up with American culture all around me. Not only did I watch a huge number of Hollywood films as a small child, I grew up watching Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, all those kinds of things. I loved the atmosphere, the diversity of culture, the fact that every state is entirely different from every other, and there are fifty of them. The politics fascinated me. America is a new country compared to England, and it just seems to me that there was so much colour and life inherent in its society. I have visited many times now, and I honestly feel like I’m visiting my second home. And I believe that as a non-American there are many things about American culture that I can look at as a spectator.

The difficulty with writing about an area that you are very familiar with is that you tend to stop noticing things. You take things for granted. The odd or interesting things about the people and the area cease to be odd and interesting. As an outsider you never lose that viewpoint of seeing things for the first time, and for me that is very important. Also many writers are told to write about the things they are familiar with. I don’t think this is wrong, but I think it is very limiting. I believe you should also write about the things that fascinate you. I think in that way you have a chance to let your passion and enthusiasm for the subject come through in your prose. I also believe that you should challenge yourself with each new book. Take on different and varied subjects. Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of writing things to a formula. Someone once said to me that there were two types of novels. There were those that you read simply because some mystery was created and you had to find out what happened. The second kind of novel was one where you read the book simply for the language itself, the way the author used words, the atmosphere and description. The truly great books are the ones that accomplish both.

I was once asked to define a ‘classic’, and I thought it was perhaps a novel that presented you with a narrative so compelling you couldn’t read it fast enough, and yet it was written so beautifully you couldn’t read it slowly enough.  You are caught in that limbo of having to know what happens, and yet never wanting it to end.  I think any author wants to write great novels. I don’t think anyone – in their heart of hearts – writes because it’s a sensible choice of profession, or for financial gain. I just love to write, and though the subject matter that I want to write about takes me to the States, it is nevertheless more important to me to write something that can move someone emotionally, perhaps change a view about life, and at the same time to try and write it as beautifully as I can. I also want to write about subjects – whether they be political conspiracies, serial killings, race relations, political assassinations or FBI and CIA investigations – that could only work in the USA. The kind of novels I want to write just wouldn’t work in small, green, leafy villages where you find Hobbits!

We think your books would make great films/TV - any plans to bring them to the screen?

There have been numerous discussions, numerous projects started, but nothing yet finalised.  I was even commissioned to write the screenplay for ‘A Quiet Belief in Angels’ by Olivier Dahan.  That screenplay is still out there, and we shall see what happens.  Dreamworks have attempted treatments of ‘A Simple Act of Violence’ but felt the material was too sensitive and contentious at the moment.  I have always said that I write very cinematic books that are completely unfilmable!  And there is that old adage about books and films – nothing happens for ten years, and then everything happens in month.

Do you have a research team to help you with background details?

No, it’s all my own work!  I am a research junkie, actually, and I spend a great deal more time reading non-fiction than fiction these days.  And writing without a synopsis or outline as I do, I would be hard-pushed to direct anyone else in research as I don’t know what I need to know until I need to know it.

What's your favourite book?

That’s a dreadful question!  That’s like asking for a favourite song or album.  If I was exiled to an island and could take only one book, it would perhaps be Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’.

Who's your favourite author?

Again, a truly impossible question...and I don’t know that I can even answer that.  I spend my time looking for authors who make me feel like a bad writer.  I love Capote, Annie Proulx, Tim O’Brien, Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy...and the list goes on and on, and I refuse to be more specific!

Any plans to visit Bath - perhaps for a book signing?

I will go wherever I am asked, and always have done. I don’t think I’ve been to Bath, but if the library wished me to visit, or perhaps a bookstore, I would jump at the chance.

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

Don’t play onto the railtracks, kid.  They’re electrified, and you’re gonna get killed.  No, seriously, that’s a tough one as I am not very good at taking advice. I was once asked that if I could give someone a piece of advice about writing, just one piece of advice, what would it be. I said that the worst book you could write would be the book that you thought everyone else would enjoy. The best book you could write would be the one you yourself would like to read. I can’t remember if I heard that somewhere, but it sounded like fine advice to me!

How do you like to relax?

I play guitar.  I’m actually a singer and guitarist in a band, and we are now on a regular rehearsal schedule to get out on the road.  I spent my free hours, when and where I can find them, writing songs and playing guitar.  Music is a passion of mine.  I like to think that writing is my religion but music is my philosophy...or maybe it’s the other way around!

What`s next? 

Well, it’s Nebraska in 1958. A very conservative and strait-laced FBI man is sent to investigate an apparent murder at the site of a travelling carnival. The body cannot be identified. There are cryptic tattoos on the skin.  The personnel of the carnival, a strange collection of misfits and contradictions, deny any knowledge of the dead man or the circumstances of his death. So begins an investigation that leads our FBI man into unknown territory, and every viewpoint and idea he possesses about Man, the mind and existence will be challenged.  It is a novel about identity, redemption, faith, belief, fear of the truth, discovery of self, and the terrible, terrible crimes perpetrated by the CIA and the FBI in the development of what is now known as ‘profiling’ or ‘behavioural psychology’. It is also a love story, a history of the federal justice system, a personal saga, and the biography of a man whose mother was executed for the murder of his father. So, a lighthearted romantic comedy, really!