#cityread

I hadn’t been to Wanstead before. It’s on that bit of the Central Line between Stratford (which is about as far as I usually go, and where most of the people who were packed onto the tube disembarked) and Essex - in the borough of Redbridge, which I’d never heard of before. But it seemed nice, although the library was only a five minute walk from the tube station so I didn’t see much of it. There was a park, there were houses.

The talk was in a room just off the entrance foyer of the library; there didn’t seem to be many people when I got there about 10 minutes before the thing was due to start, but it soon filled out - and BA was held up by traffic, so by the time he arrived there was a decent audience. While we were waiting, I got chatting to a nice lady who lived locally and who had recently discovered the books - actually via the theatre company who did the immersive wizard training, whose mailing list she was on. So she’d been to that, and read RoL, and then devoured the next two and was on the fourth - I tried not to react in a spoilery way when she asked me questions. It’s always fun, that vicarious excitement you have when you know someone is going to really enjoy something when they read it!

There was a short introduction by a lady from (I think) Cityread, about the scheme, and then Ben was introduced. He sensibly jettisoned the horrible echoey radio mic he’d been given, and explained that he was going to be taking questions rather than try and do a straight talk, because that was how he rolled. He didn’t actually say it quite like that, but the sentiment was there :)

I only took brief notes of the questions, so the answers were actually much longer and more interesting, but hopefully I’ve remembered at least the sense of it...

Was he avoiding east London - any plans to set anything (t)here?

The reason he hasn’t thus far is less about not wanting to use the area and much more to do with the sheer amount of history; so he’s been skirting the City and east London but just until he can decide what bits of history will work best for the stories.

Why is Peter into architecture? (or as I wrote: “Peter/Architecture OTP??”)

This is sort of a necessity of writing about a city - he wants to be able to describe the place properly and in detail, but there needs to be a reason Peter actually knows the difference and can describe to the level of detail he does in the narrative. For that to be plausible, Peter had to have a reason to know about architecture. So he does.

Why did his involvement with the BBC in the 80s/90s end?

Ben was amused by being described as having been “involved” with the Beeb, as if it was some sort of fling! But he said he wasn’t sure - one day he was getting work from them, and then he wasn’t. He used an analogy of being on a bus, but I can’t quite remember how he put it other than to end with him being off the bus and then it’s hard to get back on again, because it’s halfway down the road and you’re sat on the tarmac watching it go. Or something. He also said he suspected it might have been his association with Doctor Who, which at the time was not considered a success - and perhaps those involved were tainted with ‘failure by association’. But either way, he ended up having to get the job at Waterstones, and then started writing the books...

Why writing? Did he ever want to do anything else?

Basically, it was the thing he was good at, and there wasn’t anything else, so he did that and worked at it because the alternative was to do things that he didn’t want to do, like manual labour or working in retail. It suits him because he isn’t particularly social and doesn’t like physical work or being told what to do. And he loves doing it, gets up each day happy to be doing it, and doesn’t have a lot of time for writers who moan about their job because it’s pretty great as jobs go.

What book would he take to a desert island (although I wrote “dessert island”, I think because the lady next to me had cake)

After a bit of negotiation as to whether he could take a dictionary PLUS a book, he elected to take War & Peace in Russian, and a Russian dictionary. Because he hasn’t got round to reading it yet, and if you’re going to be stuck on an island you don’t want to take something you’ll finish quickly... I guess it being in Russian would make it last a bit longer, too. 

Oh, he did also say that if you try to read it, one of the barriers to following it is the sheer number of characters, and that having a list of characters would be helpful. I’ve heard people say this before, and have actually bookmarked the BBC Radio 4 Cast list of War and Peace from the recent massive radioplay, for exactly this purpose, for when I eventually read it.

Something about a RoL pubcrawl? I think in reference to the various pubs which are mentioned in the books...

He doesn’t drink, so it’s not really something he’d put together, but why not - someone could... The knowledge of the different pubs (like the AB local) isn’t due to personal acquaintance, as I think the questioner assumed, but just common/local knowledge, really.

Favourite author and book

Terry Pratchett, by such a huge margin that no-one else comes close :) And the Guards/Night Watch books.

Writing process

On a day-to-day basis, he gets up really early, particularly during the summer when it’s light - partly this is because when he had a day job, that was the only time he got to write, and he’s kept the habit. But also, it means he can get a few solid hours of procrastination in and be ready to start work-proper at around 9am!

Why the interest in the emergency services & what’s the trick to writing them so well

Being police gives Peter a (plausible) reason to be regularly investigating murders - being magic police gives him a reason to be routinely investigating magical crime... Making it a job gives things a context in which they make sense. In terms of writing emergency service personnel, the first trick is to understand that they all have a really dark sense of humour - it comes with the territory. The second is that they like what they’re doing, because it’s the sort of work where you have to, or you just wouldn’t do it; you’d do something else. So he avoids the casualty thing or the cop show thing where everyone is miserable and hates their work; in the same way that Columbo was written to subvert the stereotypical American detective tropes, so Peter is the antithesis of the tortured, miserable British detective who is a maverick, hates his boss, hates paperwork etc...

How did he manage to get the magic in the books right?

He made it up, so it could be one thing he didn’t have to research. (According to the questioner, “it’s accurate”, which - as BA pointed out - sounds a bit odd - not sure what was meant there! Perhaps that it seemed like it had some degree of authenticity or internal logic? Or perhaps that magic exists and happens to be exactly like it is in the books...)

It was then that we ran out of time for any more questions, and moved onto the book signing, so that was that. It was a good talk, he seemed really engaging and spoke well and the audience were interested and responded warmly I thought. I got the impression that a majority had only read the first book (or were just starting to make their way through the others), so hopefully there were plenty who’d gotten hooked on the series like my new friend with the cake!

We both queued up to get our books signed, he was friendly, she got to give BA the cake (which hopefully was not too soggy from having had drink sloshed onto its box by a guy in the queue), and that pretty much concluded the evening!

Tbh, massive kudos to the guy for doing 33 of these things. It probably seemed like a good idea in the planning meeting and then OH GOD WHEN WILL IT END, and he definitely seemed like he needed coffee, a hug, or to sleep for a week (which is apparently what he plans to do when it stops being April).