86INTERVIEWRICHARD ATTREE
autobiography, with the title: ‘The Wind of Change –
memoirs of a Windsurfing Baby Boomer’. However, Nikki,
persuaded me to shelve it. She pointed out that nobody
would be interested in the true (but arguably mundane) story
of an unknown composer and average windsurfer. She
suggested that I should write a novel.
When it comes to these sorts of decisions I trust Nikki 100%
(even though I thought she was a bit harsh re ‘nobody’,
‘mundane’, ‘unknown’, and ‘average’ :-) so I put the
autobiography in the ‘Future Projects’ folder and started
thinking about the other two ideas.
Music and windsurfing have been the major distractions in
my life – simultaneous, but very different obsessions. I’ve
spent half my life exploring these parallel worlds, getting to
know the people in them, amassing a treasure trove of
experiences, adventures, anecdotes … so the raw material
was already in place. A story based on either of these
themes could be a fictionalised version of my autobiography.
That was Nikki’s point: fiction is sexier than real life –
especially when it’s the real life of a nobody!
‘The Wind of Change’ would have to wait
until I was a somebody (and the jury’s still out
on when that might be).
The other two ideas competed to make it out of my
brain into my word processor and become my debut
novel. Windsurfing won, but an outline for my next book:
‘The Rhythm of Time’, with music as the central theme, has
joined ‘The Wind of Change’ in the Future Projects folder.
uk
WIND
SURFING
Any particular inspiration for the
characters and plot?
When I started plotting the story arc for ‘Too Close to the
Wind’ I knew I wanted to begin the book with Nick’s survival
story. In the 12 years I’ve lived here, there have been
several cases of windsurfers going missing. Some were
rescued, some drowned. A few just disappeared and their
bodies were never found. I imagined myself in Nick’s
situation, drifting for hours on his board, and I asked myself
how I’d cope. Would I have the strength of will to survive?
How long would hope remain?
The main story begins as the sun rises on Nick’s
last day alive. A yacht appears out of the
mist and offers him a lifeline. The
owner, an enigmatic figure known
to his crew as the Master, is
the leader of a
shadowy cult.
He offers
Nick a way