For the past three years now I’ve been living with a
gangster. It’s been a dysfunctional and abusive relationship but you might be
surprised to learn that he took the brunt of the violence not me. In three
books now; ‘The Drop’, ‘The Damage’ and ‘The Dead’, which has just been
published by No Exit, I have taken great delight in placing my Geordie,
white-collar criminal, David Blake, in trouble again and again. Blake has been
beaten up and shot at, chased by men on motor bikes then threatened with
imprisonment, torture and execution. He has been targeted by hit men, assaulted
by Police officers and forced to fend off an attacker in his apartment, using nothing
but an urn containing the ashes of his girlfriend’s mother.
Blake is no saint however and he, in turn, has killed people
in all three books; with knives, guns, machetes or simply by ordering their
deaths. Not bad for a man who never actually considers himself to be a gangster.
Blake’s life is pretty stressful, so he has occasionally turned to drugs but,
being an old fashioned, northern lad, he tends to prefer booze or, on
occasions, women to relieve that stress. He is not the best boyfriend material
however, having cheated on his girl with minimal guilt, and is unlikely to
empathise with you if you’ve had a hard day at the office, as it is unlikely to
have been as tough as the 24 hours he has endured.
And what has David Blake given me in return for all of the
grief I’ve put him through? Well, plenty. Apart from the obvious relief and joy
that comes with finally becoming a published author and seeing my name on a
book cover, I wasn’t sure what to expect as a first time novelist. Would
anybody read my book, would anyone actually like it? Thankfully they did and
they do. I have had some wonderful moments because of Blake. I’ve been reviewed
positively by, amongst others, The Daily Mail and The Times; the latter naming
me as one of their top five thriller writers of the year because of ‘The Drop’,
an accolade that I still can’t quite believe, even now. Frankly I’d be happy to
have that one etched on my tombstone.
In the north east in particular, the books have gone down
really well and I have received a stack of messages from folk who enjoyed
reading a story that is set in an area they know. I’ve been interviewed in all
of the local papers, made numerous appearances on BBC Radio Newcastle and even been
on TV. I’ve also given away my books in
competitions on NUFC.com, the web site for exiled Newcastle United fans around
the globe, which I think gave me almost as much pleasure as the Times review. ‘The
Drop’, renamed ‘Crime Machine’, has been published to great reviews in Germany,
so ‘The Damage’ will follow it there next year and, in the Autumn, Harper
Collins will publish both books in the U.S. God knows what they will make of my
Geordie gangster in America.
The only thing that could possibly top all of the above is
the e-mail my publisher received from someone claiming to work for David
Barron, producer of the Harry Potter films. He had apparently bought a copy of
my book, read it, loved it and wanted to turn it into a TV series. This seemed
a tad unlikely but it turned out, astonishingly, to be true. A few weeks later
I was sitting in my agent’s London office in a meeting with David, who turned
out to be a very nice bloke indeed. I spent a pleasant hour or two with the man
behind the most successful movie franchise the world has ever seen, discussing
the practicalities of bringing David Blake to the small screen. The scripts are
being developed by JJ Connolly, another top man, who wrote the great British
gangster flick, ‘Layer Cake’. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to watch David
Blake being put in peril all over again; this time on the telly.
Now that the trilogy is finally complete, I’m not going to
say whether Blake, or his large assortment of supporting characters from the
Newcastle underworld, will ever make a re-appearance. That’s dependant on me coming
up with a strong enough storyline. The last thing I want to do is churn out two
dozen very similar books, on auto pilot that, like Hollywood sequels, fall foul
of the inevitable law of diminishing returns.
I have an idea for a new book and I’m afraid there’s no space
for David Blake in this one. I owe the fellah a great deal but I’ve been seeing
other people lately; in my mind’s eye at least. I’m going to take a break from
Blake for a while, to allow some different characters to live with me instead.
However there is no way I am ever going to forget the man and everything he has
done for me. Who knows, maybe one day, I’ll come crawling back to him.
