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me and the rest the team at Twitter.
Thank you very much for being with | 0:00:00 | 0:00:00 | |
us | 0:00:00 | 0:00:00 | |
we hear the police with two
different investigations. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:27 | |
Nine lessons, subtitled some wounds
never heal. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
They conscious tribute to the
classic English detective tradition. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
Not least because Josephine in real
life was a foldable, but now largely | 0:00:34 | 0:00:39 | |
forgotten writer of | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
old-style thrillers herself.
Welcome. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
old-style thrillers herself.
Welcome. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:55 | |
Uncounted debts you feel to the
old-fashioned detective story, they | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
would be in no doubt after this
book. Cambridge, 1930s, ghost | 0:01:07 | 0:01:11 | |
stories. Very traditional story. In
a sense, you are paying your debt, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:17 | |
making it obvious. I am paying a
debt to that tradition. When I | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
decided I would go down the route of
novels featuring Josephine is a lead | 0:01:21 | 0:01:27 | |
character, I decided I would include
all the things we love about the | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
golden age, the puzzle, the Mr Regan
the red herrings, the suspect. I | 0:01:30 | 0:01:35 | |
would also combine it with a modern
sensibility. They are set during the | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
golden age period, but by no means
golden age. A couple of plotlines | 0:01:39 | 0:01:48 | |
intertwine, which we were not go
into in detail, because it is a | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
thriller. We don't want to spoil it.
A series of attacks on women, | 0:01:51 | 0:01:56 | |
rendered in a very contemporary way.
In a way that the writers in the | 0:01:56 | 0:02:01 | |
1930s would not have dared to touch.
That is the joy of hindsight, you | 0:02:01 | 0:02:12 | |
can treat crimes like that and more
honest way, the way people may have | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
talked about it at the time. They
were put in print. It is based on a | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
much more contemporary crime, the
Cambridge rapist, Peter Cook. Were | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
you around the time? No, I was not.
My partner, interestingly was in | 0:02:21 | 0:02:27 | |
Cambridge at that time. She ran a
music club, at a pub called the | 0:02:27 | 0:02:32 | |
anchor. Where he was caught. His
picture started appearing in the | 0:02:32 | 0:02:38 | |
papers. She realised she knew him,
serving him for every week. He | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
worked for a wine merchant,
delivering wine to the pub. The | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
shock of that, which still resonates
with her. The fear the Cambridge | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
rapist, for people who live there at
the time is very strong. There are | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
bars on ground floor windows. The
intimacy of the setting is a lot to | 0:02:53 | 0:02:58 | |
do with the story. Everybody knowing
everybody else. Students of that | 0:02:58 | 0:03:03 | |
era, lodging little passageways,
quite close to the University Centre | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
of the city. They very
claustrophobic atmosphere. Amazing | 0:03:06 | 0:03:13 | |
how easily that crime transported
itself back to the 1930s. In the | 0:03:13 | 0:03:18 | |
70s, people who suffer that were a
group of female students by and | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
large. Not relevant in the 30s, but
transfer that to shop workers, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
waitresses, nurses at the
Addenbrooke's Hospital, that works | 0:03:25 | 0:03:30 | |
well. The suspicion of the innocent
men, the randomness. The idea that | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
the man who was holding the town to
ransom could be a taxi driver, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
ambulance driver, the Man U cube
next to in the cinema, very | 0:03:38 | 0:03:42 | |
relevant. We also dealing with a
series of murders, which conceal a | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
secret. Not unconnected. With the
ghost stories of MR James, a provost | 0:03:46 | 0:03:55 | |
of Kings at one point. He used to
read the stories at Christmas. | 0:03:55 | 0:04:06 | |
Extraordinary scene, going in,
listening to the boss. Reading out | 0:04:06 | 0:04:11 | |
these things. It is. I love the fact
MR James, Monty as he was known, he | 0:04:11 | 0:04:19 | |
would emerge from his study with the
ink still wet on the page. Blow out | 0:04:19 | 0:04:27 | |
every candle but one, and read his
new story to those gathering. When | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
you write books like I do mixing
fact with fiction, you are always | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
looking for that little window of
the truth, just big enough to get | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
your story through. I found that in
December 1913, of when for the first | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
time MR James did not finish a new
story. What were the reasons for | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
that? What if it was not just the
pressure of time, but something so | 0:04:47 | 0:04:52 | |
terrible happened at Christmas, 25
years later the men gathering round | 0:04:52 | 0:04:57 | |
to be at started dying, killed off
one by one in ways echoing the | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
stories. You talked about merging
fact and fiction. One particular way | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
that is relevant to this novel, and
the six preceding it. The character | 0:05:06 | 0:05:12 | |
of Josephine Tay, acting as an
investigator, for the police. At the | 0:05:12 | 0:05:19 | |
scene, realising thing, adding
insights. She was a practitioner of | 0:05:19 | 0:05:24 | |
the detective novel in the golden
age. Writing eight books. What was | 0:05:24 | 0:05:33 | |
it that attracted you to her? It was
particularly her novel, way back in | 0:05:33 | 0:05:39 | |
1948 summer was brave enough to
write a story about two women | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
abusing younger. I love she picked
up the golden age rule book are | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
tearing it to shreds in front of our
eyes. No murder, no real puzzle, no | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
brilliant detective. It was a book
that can be read on many levels. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:56 | |
That is what I loved about it.
Reading it now, about an England | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
that is gone for better or worse.
You feel the sunshine on your face | 0:06:00 | 0:06:05 | |
would you pick it up. There is a
depth, a darkness convey more than | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
this, way ahead of time. That is
what appealed about her as a writer. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
As a person who I love the fact she
had a light in the theatre. Writing | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
great plays in the West End running
for every year. She numbered people | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
like John Gielgud as her close
friend. As a character, there were | 0:06:21 | 0:06:28 | |
gaps in her life. What a bold thing
to do, to take a real person who you | 0:06:28 | 0:06:34 | |
never a coming to stick in the books
as a protagonist. Someone who makes | 0:06:34 | 0:06:39 | |
the turn, in many ways. You have to
think hard before doing that? I did | 0:06:39 | 0:06:46 | |
commit felt like I had brave thing
to do. This is quite a long time | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
coming novels have a long gestation
period. It was before the characters | 0:06:50 | 0:06:55 | |
in film and fiction were so
prevalent. Although she was not as | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
well known as people like Agatha
Christie. People who love their work | 0:06:58 | 0:07:03 | |
really love that. Like she was quite
a complex and difficult woman. Quite | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
contrary. Character issues, quite
aloof and dogmatic. Although I don't | 0:07:07 | 0:07:14 | |
want to sugar over the cracks. I
wanted to bring the flaws in the | 0:07:14 | 0:07:20 | |
personality, that is what people
like about the character in these | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
books. She is not nice all the time.
Sometimes you want to pick up and | 0:07:22 | 0:07:27 | |
shake and scream at her. She is
quite likeable. If you are going to | 0:07:27 | 0:07:32 | |
use the character of the outsider,
the assistant. Who looks in on the | 0:07:32 | 0:07:39 | |
case. Whether it is a blundering
police officer. Someone just who has | 0:07:39 | 0:07:44 | |
missed the main point. Comes in,
sets it right. That person is a | 0:07:44 | 0:07:54 | |
little bit of a loner. That is very
true to the woman in real life. She | 0:07:54 | 0:07:59 | |
kept herself to herself. I am
enjoying very much creating a | 0:07:59 | 0:08:04 | |
relationship that JC feeding the
ducks has with my detective, Archie | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
Penrose. They are friends. Rather
than doing the on off romance which | 0:08:07 | 0:08:12 | |
is a much loved thing about crime
fiction. To write about their | 0:08:12 | 0:08:17 | |
friendship, the ups and downs. Also
when Josephine Pazner gift for | 0:08:17 | 0:08:23 | |
friendship is more needed than ever.
Quite interesting to look at. A | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
pretty gruesome but, in the sense
that the crimes we are dealing with | 0:08:27 | 0:08:33 | |
in two parallel series of events
leave nothing to the imagination. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:40 | |
They have a modern sensibility, if
that is the right word. Particularly | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
the first one. Do you ever feel a
reluctance, a distaste to do so near | 0:08:43 | 0:08:50 | |
the edge in what people will do to
each other? I think everybody who | 0:08:50 | 0:08:57 | |
writes crime fiction has a line, and
you don't know what the line is | 0:08:57 | 0:09:02 | |
until you are nearly at it. I agree
very much the first murder comes | 0:09:02 | 0:09:07 | |
close. What is important to me, and
has been through all my books is to | 0:09:07 | 0:09:12 | |
make those murders very relevant to
the victim. To the life they lead | 0:09:12 | 0:09:18 | |
before they became the courts in
your puzzle, the victim in a murder | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
enquiry. -- the corpse. That is
really very important to me. Nicola | 0:09:22 | 0:09:37 | |
Upson, author | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 |