I am happy to be welcoming author, Alex Pearl, to Books, Life and Everything today. Alex is an author of fantasy, thrillers and murder mysteries.
His latest novel, One Man Down, will be published by Roundfire Books on 25 February 2025
Welcome Alex!
Would you like to start by telling us a little about
yourself and how you started as a writer?
For my entire working life, I was employed as an advertising
copywriter in London. So I learnt the craft of telling stories in a very short
form, whether that be in print, radio, tv or digital media. In many ways, it’s
a good training ground for writers and film directors. The late Alan Parker
used to say that the art of brevity is something that the advertising industry
taught him. After all, when you write a TV or radio script you only have 30 or
40 seconds to tell a story, so you have to convey your message efficiently and
compellingly enough to grab your audience. Doing so requires creative flair and
imagination. These, in turn, are essential qualities for writers and directors
if they are going to succeed and make their mark in the world.
I contend that all good creative copywriters should be able
to make a reasonable stab at writing fiction, and some have excelled; think F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Heller, Dorothy L. Sayers, Fay Wheldon and Salman
Rushdie, to name just a few. The big hurdle, of course, is that leap into the
longer form. For many, it’s a leap too far. One that takes confidence and
chutzpah. For me, I made that leap by chance to simply occupy my mind and kill
time. Let me explain.
Back
in 2010, I was working for an advertising agency that was undergoing a global
merger with New York’s second-largest ad agency. The merger was a messy and
protracted affair that someone at the time equated to the Titanic coming to the
rescue of the Hindenburg. Over an interminable period of a year, work
completely dried up and my art director who I had worked with for over 30
years, decided to leave the industry and become a full-time artist. I had
nothing to do, other than worry about my future. So to take my mind off matters
I decided that I was going to use this time constructively by writing a book
for my young kids. Besides, it would also give the impression that I was busy
working. Until this point, I had only once attempted writing a book - without
much success. On that occasion, I hadn’t bothered to plan a narrative. Instead
I
had just started to
write to see where it would take me, and the answer was not very far. After
15,000 words I came to a crashing halt, not knowing where the story was going,
and the manuscript was eventually shelved. But this second time around, I spent
considerable time working out and carefully planning a narrative and I wrote
this in some detail as a synopsis. And as I penned this outline, the title of
the book just popped into my head. Sleeping with the Blackbirds just sounded
lyrical and appealing and summed up the nature of this story, which was a
modern-day urban fantasy of sorts that tackled serious subjects like bullying,
homelessness, and single parenthood. Once I had this road map worked out, I was
able to start writing and I have to say that the writing of the story gave me a
great deal of satisfaction, and by the time the agency got around to making me
redundant, I’d almost completed the first draft. And about a year later it was
published by PenPress. A few years after that it was longlisted by the
Millennium Book Awards and selected by the Indie Author Project for
distribution to libraries across the US and Canada.
I’d become an author, almost by accident.
What are your interests apart from writing?
Besides writing, I am a painter of large abstract works on
glass and have, over the years, staged exhibitions and sold pieces. My other
passions are cinema; music - primarily classical and jazz; gardening; theatre;
reading of course - fiction of all shades, biographies and history. And
finally, cooking.
What is your favourite childhood book?
The first book I read as a child was Stig of the Dump by
Clive King and it was the book that got the ball rolling as it were. And I
remember being captivated by it. It’s a charming book about a little boy who
discovers at the bottom of his grandparent’s garden, a caveman, or more
accurately a cave boy, and the themes that King cleverly explores are those
universal themes of trust, truth, compassion and guilt. It’s a charming and
beautifully written book that undoubtedly influenced my first book, Sleeping with
the Blackbirds, which I wrote for my own children.
Tell us about your latest book without giving the plot away.
My latest book is One Man Down, the sequel to A Brand to Die
For, both of which are comic murder mysteries set in the London advertising
scene of 1983 and ‘84 respectively. One Man Down has been taken up by Roundfire
Books (Collective Ink) and will be published on 25 February 2025. As murder
mysteries, both novels are fairly unconventional in that they don’t follow the
customary murder mystery narratives, and they are, I think, fairly
unpredictable and hopefully not unamusing.
My two protagonists Brian Finkle and Angus Lovejoy are a creative team
at the agency Gordon Deedes Rutter and are an unlikely pair. While Lovejoy is
the product of a fairly dysfunctional upper-middle-class family, Finkle is the
only child of two left-wing neurotic Jewish parents. It is the couple’s
misfortune while creating ingenious advertising campaigns to stumble upon
worlds of shady dealings, deceit and murder. Being creative, they can’t resist
turning their minds to solving the murders - but their efforts invariably have
unforeseen and unfortunate results.
Here’s the book blurb:
The tale of a stumped policeman, a third man, and a
well-placed shot
It’s 1984. Princess Diana has just given birth to her second
child. The legendary comic Tommy Cooper has died on stage (quite literally).
And Angus Lovejoy and Brian Finkle are gloriously oblivious to it all as they
strive to enthral the nation with their television commercials for the
advertising agency Gordon Deedes Rutter. But all is not as rosy as it might
seem in the frenetic world of Soho. Following a disastrous presentation to a
manufacturer of diarrhoea tablets, Lovejoy and Finkle let off steam by playing
cricket for an old school friend – but in doing so, stumble upon a nest of
vipers involving a gay vicar, a small-time antique fraudster, a photographer,
and blackmail. There can only be one outcome and it’s going to entail murder.
And here are some pre-publication endorsements:
“Pearl has written a very funny and compelling page-turner.
11 out of 10!”
Jeremy Dein, KC and presenter of the BBC’s award-winning
series Murder, Mystery and My Family
“Alex Pearl breaks all the rules of fashionable modern
fiction — meaning that his stories are compelling, his characters are plausible
and live in a recognisable world, and his writing is clear, vivid and
entertaining.”
Jonathan Margolis, author and columnist for the FT and
Evening Standard
“Alex Pearl’s new novel is a highly entertaining tale of
shenanigans and skulduggery set in 1980s London ad land. Pearl is a very funny
writer, with a keen eye for the absurdities of life.”
Ian Critchley, book reviewer for The Sunday Times & the
TLS
“Many a true word is spoken in jest. And former ad man Alex
Pearl gives us plenty of pithy truths, as well as spot-on jests, in this witty
exposé of the world of advertising agencies in the supercool ‘80s. Clever,
unsparing, engaging and a lot of fun.”
Sue Clark, former comedy writer for the BBC and author of
Note to Boy and A Novel Solution
“There’s no mistaking excellent work, and Alex Pearl writes
excellent stories. Novels that read like great films. Engaging, immersive,
relatable. And funny. Leaving me sorry that One Man Down is now done, yet eager
to read Pearl’s next book.”
Bill Arnott, bestselling author of the Gone Viking
travelogues and The Year of Living Danishly
“In One Man Down, Alex Pearl’s biting satire on 80s
individualism, London’s adland is as much a character as Morse’s Oxford. Run on
two parts alcohol and one part cynicism, the sybaritic excesses of old Soho’s
creatives are the perfect accompaniment to this feast of theft, blackmail and
murder.”
Pete Langman, author of Killing Beauties, Slender Threads,
Black Box, and The Country House Cricketer
“A 1980s gem sizzling with witty dialogue and the mysterious
murders of an advertising executive and a fraudster to boot. Alex Pearl writes
from his personal experience of having worked in ‘the glory days of British
advertising.’ Its tongue-in-cheek anecdotes and unashamed name-dropping of
celebs like Julian Clary, had me laughing out loud. This is well written,
entertaining, and different from the usual murder mystery.”
M. J. Mallon, author of the Curse Of Time series: Bloodstone
and Golden Healer
“The worlds of cricket, advertising, and 1980s London can
feel far away if you aren’t British. But in Alex Pearl’s capable hands they are
made real — and very, very witty. Mr. Pearl clearly knows what he’s writing
about. The pace of the writing is brisk, but you’ll want to take your time in
order to savor the quips and puns. One Man Down is a highly enjoyable read!”
Jadi Campbell, 2023 San Francisco Book Festival Winner with
The Trail Back Out
What are your writing routines and where do you do most of
your writing?
Unlike Graham Greene who made it a rule to write 500 words a
day - usually in the morning, I don’t set myself any rules and am generally
fairly shambolic. Some days I write extensively and can turn out 1,000 words
and other days can be remarkably unproductive. I tend to be more productive
when writing outside my comfort zone out of the house or my office. I’ve no
idea why this is the case but it certainly seems to be. I often accompany my
wife to conferences and find myself parked in the corner of a cafe writing to
my heart’s content. These days are generally very productive. Perhaps it has
something to do with having fewer distractions.
How do you go about researching detail and ensuring your
books are realistic?
To date, I have only had to conduct extensive research for
one novel, The Chair Man, which is a thriller set against the backdrop of the
7/7 terrorist attack on London’s transport system. For this, I had to research
the murky world of terrorist cells and the ways in which they communicated via
the Internet in 2005. It’s not an easy subject to research for obvious reasons
but I managed to track down an obscure publication written by academics on this
very subject. Then, of course, there were the secretive worlds of GCHQ and MI5
to delve into. Again, there is obviously precious little out there, so what
little you can glean from books written by those who have retired from the
intelligence services, you have to embellish with imaginative flourishes. The
skill is to meld fact with fiction and make the whole feel credible. The
political context also had to be accurate. So I spent more time researching and
taking copious notes than I eventually spent writing the novel - and it’s a
relatively long book.
Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most
difficult?
For me, the plotting is by far the most difficult part of
the whole process. And structuring the narrative in the form of a detailed
synopsis is a real challenge. Once I have a road map that works and I have an
ending that isn’t obvious or predictable, but also wholly plausible, I can
start writing. Writing the story itself is the most enjoyable and satisfying
aspect.
When planning A Brand to Die For, I used my brother as a sounding board.
He has a real knack for devising interesting narratives and between us, we came
up with a storyline that felt unusual and worked pretty well. When planning the
sequel, I repeated this exercise with my brother and we’d have several long
conversations over the phone until we both agreed that the synopsis worked.
Were there any scenes which you had to edit out of your
book?
I have a good friend who is a playwright, and he kindly read
my first draft of One Man Down and pointed out that I had got some details
wrong about London’s Hurlingham Club in which some of my scenes are set. The
Hurlingham Club’s cricket pavilion is in fact nothing more than a glorified
marquee. In my first draft, I had it down as a rather lovely Edwardian building
with a veranda. So Hugh my friend put me in touch with a member of the club who
was good enough to show me around the buildings and its cricket ground and
makeshift cricket pavilion.
I also thought I’d have to seriously edit a lengthy scene in
which the well-known comedian Julian Clary appears since I hadn’t received his
permission to plant him into my novel. But I was very fortunate in successfully
contacting Julian through his agent, and he very kindly read the passages in
which he appears and permitted me to publish them.
Can you give any hints about any upcoming books you have
planned?
My third book in the Lovejoy & Finkle murder mystery
series involves art fraud and focuses on paintings that were produced for the
so-called Degenerate Art exhibition that was held in Munich before the war by
the Nazis in Munich in 1937. Many of these paintings were later burnt by the
Nazis but some were also sold and stolen by high-ranking individuals including
Hermann Göring.
Thank you Alex and good luck with your writing.
You can find out more about Alex Pearl here
Comments
Post a Comment