Mississauga Writers Group
March 2015
Featured Author
Which writers inspire you?
More than any others, the ones that were read to me by my grandfather. They shaped my literary
forms whether I think so or not. I’m a little older than most of you – make that a lot – so when I
mention Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle and John Buchan, don’t say “Huh?”
There’ve been a lot of others along the way, including the late Hammond Innes, who was the master
of the thriller in which you get the horror and mechanics of a crime without the comforting guidance
of a detective or secret agent: just a protagonist dropped in the middle of a pile of you-know-what,
and by luck and sweat gets the better of the baddies. Of course he also gets the girl, which makes the
whole thing worthwhile.
Depending on the genre I’m writing in at the moment, the influences of similar writers from the past
pop up and are welcomed. Leslie Charteris (The Saint), Sapper (Bulldog Drummond), Dennis
Wheatley (occult thrillers). Of course there are many others: too many to list.
Also, the screenwriter and director, Quentin Tarantino said, “I steal from every movie ever made.” I
can also say I probably steal from every book I’ve ever read. There’s always something that catches
your eye, something worth saying again in a different way. This is quite natural and I think every
writer does it, consciously or otherwise.
I regret that not very many of the modern writers find their way onto my Kindle. I find them too
slick and basically implausible. Somewhere along the way thriller writers have lost the art of telling
“The rattling good yarn”. I guess that’s my loss, but it’s also a loss to the new generation of reading
public. I love sci-fi, but it’s got to be good.
What is your favourite book and why?
Oh Lord. This is an unanswerable question. There are so many I go back to from time to time. You
can however scrub any of the recent ones – I’m talking more from a man’s point of view – as so many
of them have just climbed onto some bandwagon that involves vampires, zombies, fantasy worlds or
peculiar religious sects out for control. No names, no pack drill, but you know who I mean.
However, if pressed I’d say I still go back to the works of John Buchan, leavened with Kipling, and a
sprinkling of Winnie the Pooh. At least my tastes are eclectic.
What do you think is the easiest thing about writing? What is the most difficult?
Thinking up new stories. I don’t know about others, but my imagination well never runs dry. I once
had something to say about that, to the effect that those who complain about writers block generally
do