Peter Robinson, the popular author of sixteen highly acclaimed
Inspector Banks novels, was in Manchester recently as a part
of the Waterstones “Dead On Deansgate” crime season.
Peter, who hails originally from Yorkshire, England, but who
now divides his time between the UK and Canada, was in town
to promote his latest novel, Piece Of My Heart, featuring
the popular detective and took time to speak with Chris High,
beforehand.
‘
The novel is set around the murders of a young girl at a Rock
festival in 1969 and of a music journalist in the present
day. The only links between the two deaths, it seems, is the
involvement in both cases of a band called The Mad Hatters,’ Peter
explained. ‘Banks finds he has to delve into the past
to find exactly how much of a hornets nest has been stirred
up by the journalist and try to piece together events separated
by a generation. The book was great fun to write, because
it gave me the excuse to look through my old record collection
and listen to stuff I’d not heard in years, and all
in the name of research.’
A former tutor at colleges in Canada, Peter has won many awards
for his work, including two Crime Writers of Canada Arthur
Ellis Awards. ‘I still get a fantastic thrill from seeing
my books on the shelf and, usually, enjoy sniffing the first
copy I receive of the latest novel. I really enjoy the promotional
side of the business, too. With luck, established fans of
my work will have brought friends along who have never read
my novels and so might be tempted to try something new. The
only drawback to touring as far as I am concerned is that
I don’t get as much time to write as I’d like,
which is always a shame. The Dead On Deansgate idea is great,
because it gives such a tailor made platform for authors to
reach their readers. With Manchester being such a vibrant
city with a fantastic musical heritage, I’m sure the
event at Waterstones will be a great success and I’m
very much looking forward to it.’
Peter Robinson read extracts from Piece Of My Heart at Waterstones
Bookstore on Deansgate, Manchester. For more information about
Peter Robinson, visit his website.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Formerly a Chef, publican, shop manager, supermarket shelf-filler,
library employee and deliverer of lambs, Chris High now dedicates
most of his time to writing and journalism. He has successfully collaborated
with singer Chris de Burgh on a collection of song based short stories
available from his Website, and is currently in
the process of completing his first Crime novel. Chris lives on Merseyside,
England, with his cat Tigger and his dog, Duke.
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