Readers Place

Author Q&A

1. Where did you come across the case of George Edjali and when did the idea for the book start to develop?

I came across a reference to it when reading about the Dreyfus case. The Edjali Case had many parallels, except for a key one – that it had been more or less completely forgotten. So I went to it looking for something to read about it, failed, and wrote something myself instead.

2. Is it more challenging to write fiction when it is based around fact?

It just throws up different problems. You’re initially grateful that the story is a given; on the other hand, you can’t fiddle the facts or the characters much, so ‘what really happened’ can become a bit of a constriction. I probably enjoyed writing the George side of the story (where I could invent much more freely) than the Arthur side.

3. Are you a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work?

Well, I read him when I was young but I had never imagined writing about him. I chose to write about the case, and he came along with it willy-nilly. But by the end of the research and writing, I came to admire and respect him. But it’s very much not Arthur Conan Doyle as the author of Holmes; it’s mostly Arthur Conan Doyle away from his desk, the writer as a man of action.

4. Your research for this book must have been huge, how did you decide when to stop researching and start writing?

This isn’t how I find it works best. You do enough research to start writing; then, as you write, you find out what you need to know (train timetables, what Southsea was like in the 1880s, and so on). If you do all the research beforehand a) you waste a lot of time on stuff you may not need; b) the research is likely to oppress the novel.

5. The portrayal of the characters is incredibly in depth and detailed. Do you think you created the characters as you would like to think they behaved or as they actually did behave?

I hope the latter.

6. Have you been in touch with any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s family about the book?

Well, I made an initial approach, after being given a contact by a Doylean close to the Estate, but I didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply. So I thought, right, well that makes it a bit easier in some way. And I certainly haven’t heard anything subsequently. But the family is very scattered now – none of Arthur’s five children had any children themselves.

7. Arthur & George was chosen for Richard & Judy’s book club. How did it feel to know that people countrywide were analysing your novel?

I didn’t really think of them ‘analysing it’. I thought of them reading it. And I said to myself, ‘the more the merrier’.

8. The jacket of the hardback of Arthur & George was very striking. Did you have any input into the design?

Yes, I suggested to the designer Suzanne Dean that the one thing I didn’t want was a period cover. So she did a period cover. And then quietly persuaded me it was what I really wanted. Brilliant! But then she is the best in the business.

9. Who are your favourite authors and why?

You’d be here all night if I answered that. For part of the answer, you could start with Flaubert’s Parrot.

10. Can you share any details about what you are working on at the moment?

Nope. Top secret. Besides, you might steal it if I said what it was about. Or if not you, someone else…