January is always an ‘interesting’ month, for as a
new year commences - we all trudge back to our work, following our Christmas /
New Year / Winter holidays.
Cognitively it can be hard to mentally re-adjust
after the extended break. For bibliophiles we often look to our reading to keep
us safe from the vagaries [and randomness] of reality with its dark edges
- as our thoughts from time to time create existential problems, as we
contemplate existence [……as worthy as this all sounds……].
The last few years I have found award-winning
novelist Peter May’s
writing schedule rather helpful, for he has launched a new work each
January. Peter’s writing is elegant, and for me a distraction from
existential problems, as his narratives are always deeply layered with
insight and compassion
that cuts through the darkness, and the gloom that comes packaged with the two faces of Janus.
So it was a delight to join Karen Robinson of The
Sunday Times, Jon Coates
of The Express, Jake Kerridge
of The Telegraph with writer / literary commentators Barry Forshaw
and Nick Clee for lunch with Peter May.
Peter May’s latest work “I’ll Keep You
Safe” sees a return to the Scottish Islands, like the work he’s most
renowned for, The Black House
Trilogy, which has garnered many international awards. Reviewers and
literary commentators often comment on the evocative nature of the backdrop
that May uses; making the location as vivid in the reader’s imagination, as the
author’s characters.
As Peter’s new work “I’ll Keep You Safe” is
released on 11th January 2018 in the UK and Ireland and on March 16th 2018 in
US from Quercus Publishing, we’ll share what readers have in store; to help
manage The Two Faces of
January.
Husband and wife, Niamh and Ruairidh Macfarlane
have come a long way with their cloth company, Ranish Tweed, from their small
Hebridean home to the world of high fashion. But on a business trip to Paris,
cracks in their relationship start to appear. When Niamh receives an anonymous
email informing her of Ruairidh's affair, she is distraught. Only hours later
Ruairidh is killed by a car bomb, leaving Niamh’s life in ruins. And when the
police declare Niamh as the prime suspect in her husband’s death, her life as
she knows it ceases to exist. When Niamh is allowed back to her home on
the Isle of Lewis to return her husband's remains, she is followed by French
detective, Sylvie Braque. As Braque digs deeper into the couple’s relationship
and Niamh replays her life with Ruiairidh, distant memories resurface and past
feuds are reignited. As the past and present move closer together the two women
find themselves drawn to a killer who will not back down.
We should point out the novel contains a very
useful glossary of Celtic / Gaelic pronunciation to assist the reader.
Peter’s readers will be familiar with the high
level of research that goes into his work, as well as how prescient much of his
imagination is, and he kindly provided some background to his latest work –
THE DARK WEB
In relation to the criminal element of the story, I
explored the so-called Dark Web. This is the flip side of the internet we
all know and use. It is where you will find society’s creepy-crawlies
when you take a peek into the shadows that lurk beneath. The Dark Web, however,
is not really that dark. It is a collection of publicly visible websites
that hide the IP addresses of their servers. Anyone with a modicum of IT
know-how can access it by downloading a special anonymity browser called
Tor. Suddenly you have access to sites selling illegal goods and services
in secure anonymity - child pornography, weapons, drugs, and the services of
hitmen. Payment is made, again anonymously, with the use of Bitcoins
whose derivation and destination are untraceable. Who knew it was that
easy?
FORENSIC TECHNOLOGY
I delved into the world of ground-breaking forensic
technology, where newly developed techniques allow investigators to recover
fingerprints from bomb-blasted particles. Previously both criminals and
investigators believed fingerprints were obliterated by bomb blasts. That
was indeed the case with conventional fingerprints. It meant that
bomb-makers were unconcerned about leaving fingerprints, on the basis they
would be destroyed anyway. However, a new type of fingerprint has recently
been discovered. It is left by the oily residue of the fingers which when
exposed to extreme heat reacts chemically with metal, effectively etching
itself invisibly into the casing of a bomb. Undetectable by conventional
procedures, these fingerprints can now be recovered by applying a powerful
electrostatic charge to the piece under examination, then dusting it with a
fine carbon powder. And bingo! There is the fingerprint which had
previously been so undetectable.
BODY PARTS AND BURIAL
Ruairidh’s death in a car explosion means there is
very little of him left to repatriate for burial. I wanted to explore the
practicalities of this. A consultation with my pathology adviser, Dr.
Steve Campman, introduced me to the complex set of international rules and
regulations that govern the transportation of human remains by commercial airlines.
What was left - a limited number of pieces of charred flesh and bone - would be
vacuum sealed in plastic bags following examination by a pathologist. A
State-approved undertaker would supply the requisite paperwork once he had
sealed the bags in a leakproof container. Only then would an airline accept the
remains for transportation. These are the awful practical mundanities in the
aftermath of such a death, and I thought it was important for Niamh to be seen
dealing with the shock of them. There was also the question of burial
when the box was flown back to the island. The French investigators would
not allow it, but also there are no crematoria in the Outer Hebrides. So I went
to visit the only funeral director on the Isle of Lewis, Alasdair Macrae. He
suggested the tiny coffin containing Ruairidh’s remains would be placed within
a normal-sized coffin and braced to prevent movement when the bearers carried
it to the grave. I was also keen to respect island tradition in my portrayal of
the burial itself. When I first went to the islands nearly thirty years
ago, women did not go to the graveside and usually they would not even take
part in the procession. However, I was fortunate on the day I went to the
cemetery at Dalmore Bay on the west coast of Lewis - where the burial was to
take place in the book - there was an actual funeral in progress. I
witnessed a rare occasion, where the female mourners led the procession to the
graveside carrying flowers, while the men followed on with the coffin. It was
perfect for the circumstances of the burial that I planned to write, allowing
me to break with island conventions describing events at the cemetery. I
watched with fascination as the male mourners then picked up shovels to fill in
the grave themselves.
LOCATIONS
My research took me to numerous island locations,
including the home of Harris Tweed Hebrides at their Shawbost Mill; the
independent mill at Carloway, only recently rescued from closure; the Grimersta
Estate, with its impressive fishing lodge and complex water system. And of
course the impressive Scottish baronial castle at Amhuinnsuidhe on the Isle of
Harris, where I stayed overnight to absorb its distinctive and rarified
atmosphere. On my final day on the Isle of Lewis I visited a legendary
location; a stone bothy built into the cliffs of Mangersta, on the south-west
of the island, by the parents of aid worker Linda Norgrove who was kidnapped by
the Taliban in Afghanistan, and died during a failed rescue attempt by US
forces. The bothy rests perilously on a ledge just below the top of towering
cliffs of granite and gneiss that are hundreds of feet high, standing resolute
against the relentless assault of the Atlantic.
PARIS
My location research also took me to Paris, around
the Place de la République, where only fifteen months earlier terrorists had
rampaged through boulevards and alleyways. The aftermath of those attacks
were still very much evident in the nightly gathering of armed police and
vehicles along one side of the square. I also visited the world famous Paris
cemetery, Père Lachaise, where I had the unsettling experience of coming across
a full-sized bronze figure on the grave of French journalist, Victor Noir, who
was shot dead in 1870 by Prince Pierre Bonaparte, the great nephew of Napoleon.
The reason I found it so unsettling was that the face of this figure was the
spitting image of myself as a young man.
INTERVIEWS
In a search for authenticity I conducted in depth
interviews. I had long conversations with the young island entrepreneur,
Iain Finlay Macleod, whose Breanish Tweed became the inspiration for my
fictitious Ranish Tweed. Gaelic actor and broadcaster, Derek Murray, showed me
the arcane world of teenage island boys who, by tradition, steal the gates of
their neighbours on Halloween. I also journeyed across the sodden
moorland of north-east Lewis to the remote ruins of a house and church built by
a pioneering baptist called John Nicholson. I picked this as a crucial
location in the book, where the denouement is played out on its storm-lashed
cliffs. The ruins of Nicholson’s house are also the basis for the book’s
iconic cover image.
HARRIS TWEED
In closing it is worth noting Harris Tweed is the
only cloth in the world to be defined by Act of Parliament, and is described in
the 1993 Act passed by the Houses of Parliament in London, as “handwoven by
islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the Outer Hebrides,
and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides”. All Harris
Tweed must also be examined by an inspector from the Harris Tweed Authority,
and stamped with the famous cross and orb once it is established it has met all
legal criteria and standards of quality. Through my connections with Harris
Tweed Hebrides, I gained access to Première Vision, the twice-yearly fabric
fair in Paris. Thousands of stalls are enclosed by lit plastic walls arranged
in rows that criss-cross, in the giant exhibition halls of the Parc
d’Exposition. This vast fair has cloth-makers from all over the world
exhibiting their fabrics for designers and manufacturers ahead of the seasonal
fashion shows which will determine what some people will be wearing in the
spring or the autumn.
And remember Peter May
commences the Promotional Tour shortly, and as he is a most amusing raconteur,
so we urge you to attend one of his events, not only to grab a copy of his
latest novel, but also to gain some insight into this author and listen to his
tales.
The Full Tour details are available by Clicking Here
I enjoyed finding myself at lunch with Peter May
and my bibliophile colleagues, who like Peter have many amusing asides with
anecdotes and reflections which are life affirming when confronted by Janus.
All of us are journalists, writers, commentators – and so with a glass of wine
in hand, there was much mirth over a fine lunch.
Though Barry Forshaw made us all laugh like hyenas
when the topic of deadlines came up, something that as writers we all fear. As
apart from Peter May’s latest work, Barry Forshaw has his Historical Noir
coming shortly as does Bookbrunch’s Nic
Clee look at the literary award process.
More information about the work of Peter May CLICK HERE
More information about “The Booker and the Best” by
Nicholas Clee
CLICK HERE
More Information about “Historical Noir” by Barry Forshaw
CLICK HERE
So after thanking Jon Riley Publisher, and Hannah
Robinson Publicist [Quercus Publishing], and of course Sophie Ransom for an
excellent lunch, where the laughter was as infectious as Peter May’s anecdotes
– we all headed back into a chilly London; but were all energised, as only the
company and laughter of bibliophiles / raconteurs can provide when there are
bottles of wine.
Clutching my copy of Peter May’s “I’ll Keep You
Safe” – suddenly the two faces of Janus / January didn’t feel as depressing as
it did when the alarm clock sounded on the 2nd of January.
You can get a copy at a heavy discount from this link
from the Book Depository, with free delivery worldwide.
Photos © 2018 A Karim [and Nicholas Clee]
