:00:00. > :00:10.Now on BBC News, we talk to Gillian Slovo in meet the author.
:00:11. > :00:15.Ten days in London, travel industry -- Street, putting, buildings on
:00:16. > :00:21.fire and a creeping sense of chaos. And on top of that, the government,
:00:22. > :00:28.breeze and corruption. Gillian Slovo's new thriller, ten days, paid
:00:29. > :00:31.equally picture of the city and its politics. No one ever seems to know
:00:32. > :00:53.what is really going on. Welcome. It is a very dark story that you
:00:54. > :00:59.have written. There's not much hope there, is there? It is a story in
:01:00. > :01:03.hotly about the state of our nation and a story about modern politics
:01:04. > :01:09.and I think it is not a lot of hope at the moment. It has sprung from
:01:10. > :01:16.your experience of the troubles, The Riots in Tottenham particularly in
:01:17. > :01:19.London and 2011. The created a plea from forbidden conversations that
:01:20. > :01:24.you have people who were involved. Did this book really spring from
:01:25. > :01:30.that experience? It did in a kind of a way because I was lucky enough to
:01:31. > :01:33.do the verbatim play on The Riots and I say lucky, because I watch The
:01:34. > :01:38.Riots like many people dead and I sat there thinking, what on earth is
:01:39. > :01:42.going on? Why are people doing this? Why is it spreading? And what the
:01:43. > :01:45.play gave me was the ability to call and ask a huge number of people,
:01:46. > :01:51.people who had been part of the original demonstration in Tottenham,
:01:52. > :01:55.writers, breeze, riot breeze, which was fascinating to talk to them, and
:01:56. > :02:00.politicians, about what was going on. And what it gave me for the
:02:01. > :02:04.book, although this book starts with the rioters is not about the 2011
:02:05. > :02:10.riots, it gave me the confidence to be able to write myself into a riot.
:02:11. > :02:17.What you think it is like to be there? Some of people called me in
:02:18. > :02:21.Tottenham when it first broke out and before they started hitting the
:02:22. > :02:25.shops and burning buildings, was that there was a feeling of being in
:02:26. > :02:29.a carnival. Because there were all these people who were brought
:02:30. > :02:32.together in a protest but then it suddenly turn into something else
:02:33. > :02:39.and there was no police to control it. When it became more serious,
:02:40. > :02:42.some people became worried that people would be hurt and try to do
:02:43. > :02:47.something about it and some people got carried away in the joy of
:02:48. > :02:50.breaking rules. And then of course there was the experience of the
:02:51. > :02:55.police who are in the middle of a crowd which either wants to break
:02:56. > :03:00.into shops or burned buildings, or actually wants to hurt them. And in
:03:01. > :03:06.the book, there is a sense of how difficult it is for police officers
:03:07. > :03:11.who are trying to do a decent job. And not make things worse. It is an
:03:12. > :03:17.exceptionally difficult role to fulfil and it is very easy to get
:03:18. > :03:21.things wrong. I think that is clear, and I think it is very scary to be a
:03:22. > :03:27.police officer in a riot. Because not only are you worrying about your
:03:28. > :03:30.own officers and what is going to happen to them, because things can
:03:31. > :03:34.go badly wrong, but you're also worrying about the community which
:03:35. > :03:39.are both trying to protect and to prevent from doing anything illegal.
:03:40. > :03:41.Another aspect of the book which dominates much of the story and we
:03:42. > :03:47.are not going to give too much away, it is set in the world of politics.
:03:48. > :03:50.At the higher reaches of government, whether is a Home Secretary and
:03:51. > :03:54.Prime Minister at loggerheads. What strikes me about this is that there
:03:55. > :03:58.are relatively few people in the political firmament who become main
:03:59. > :04:04.characters in the study but they are all pretty awful. I mean they are
:04:05. > :04:11.either corrupt or venal in some way, certainly self obsessed. You don't
:04:12. > :04:13.seem to have much time for anyone in politics who might actually have
:04:14. > :04:20.some truism working away at the heart of the ambitious pursuit of
:04:21. > :04:25.power. I do if they do have it, but in my book, what I was partly
:04:26. > :04:33.writing about was the pursuit of power and I think, anyway, it is not
:04:34. > :04:35.just the politicians but there is a commissioner of police who I have
:04:36. > :04:40.the right to have considerable amount of sympathy with. But what I
:04:41. > :04:44.was writing about is when you are in the position, what the compromises
:04:45. > :04:47.of power force you into doing. You might start off with good intentions
:04:48. > :04:53.and end up doing something that you would think he would never do and
:04:54. > :04:58.what Ten Days is partly about is how the political game happens at that
:04:59. > :05:03.metalevel and how also a impact of what many people. That is really
:05:04. > :05:08.what I was writing about. You are a writer with a dramatic background.
:05:09. > :05:13.Your father was a famous figure in the anti-apartheid movement, led the
:05:14. > :05:19.South African Commies party for many years. Your mother was killed in the
:05:20. > :05:25.1980s in Mozambique in an awful episode. You came to this country in
:05:26. > :05:30.the 60s and live with the memory of that divided five country. In a way
:05:31. > :05:35.that I suppose inevitably has never left you. It hasn't, really, and I
:05:36. > :05:39.think I have also lived with an understanding of how big politics
:05:40. > :05:44.can interact with ordinary people because in a way my early life was
:05:45. > :05:48.completely determined. What happened was completely determined by what
:05:49. > :05:53.was happening in South Africa, by what the apartheid regime were doing
:05:54. > :05:56.about the choices that my parents made, so I think I have a very big
:05:57. > :06:01.consciousness that although we think we are living just ordinarily a life
:06:02. > :06:04.that have nothing to do with what is happening the political, actually
:06:05. > :06:08.most of what is happening to us is affected by that and that is why I
:06:09. > :06:13.am interested in writing about that. The paradox is that although the two
:06:14. > :06:19.things affect each other, there is in this book a huge gap between the
:06:20. > :06:24.people on the top and the people in the streets. And I feel living in
:06:25. > :06:29.London that this is what I experienced daily, I get on the tube
:06:30. > :06:34.and I look around me and I think we are all sharing the same space and
:06:35. > :06:38.we seem to be living in the same world but we actually have very
:06:39. > :06:44.different lives. The thing it is as bad as that? , I think it is as
:06:45. > :06:50.extreme as that. Depending on what your job and education is, what
:06:51. > :06:53.circumstances are very housing is and how much money you have
:06:54. > :06:57.determined how you live your life. This is a story, it is not a
:06:58. > :07:00.political tract. I don't want to Doctor much about the plot because
:07:01. > :07:04.it would give away things that might spoil peoples enjoyment, but I
:07:05. > :07:11.wonder if there is anything in this book that you think gives us hope. I
:07:12. > :07:16.think there is hope in certain human relationships in the book and
:07:17. > :07:21.particularly in the character of Cathy who lives in this really quite
:07:22. > :07:25.desperate community. The first character we meet in the book. Yes
:07:26. > :07:28.and she is trying as a mother could do her best by her daughter and
:07:29. > :07:32.tried to do the death by her neighbour, and a kid called Jade and
:07:33. > :07:37.who has a mother who is not capable of looking after him, and I think
:07:38. > :07:40.the hope was out in that, in the ability of ordinary people to build
:07:41. > :07:47.the life matter how difficult the circumstances. Did you enjoy writing
:07:48. > :07:51.it? I did, I like a book that is a patron, I like a strong narrative,
:07:52. > :07:54.and so it was a pleasure to me. When I started writing I wrote crime and
:07:55. > :07:59.then I have stopped writing it for a long time and to be able to turn to
:08:00. > :08:03.write a seller like ten days was very enjoyable and also technically
:08:04. > :08:07.difficult because what I have learned is that if you want the
:08:08. > :08:11.reader to turn the page over as if there is no pause between what is
:08:12. > :08:15.happening then you really have to work hard to get that to work. It is
:08:16. > :08:21.not easy. Thank you very much.