Monthly Online Book Magazine - December 2008

Crammed with page after page of great Christmas gift book ideas!

  December 2008 Issue

This interview was first published in GATEWAY magazine in 2006...

Dear Bernard, many thanks for agreeing to an interview for Gateway – you’ve said some very nice things about Gateway in the past, so a big thank you for that, too!

GM: You’ve covered the Ancient Britons in STONEHENGE, the Dark Ages in the King Arthur and the later Wessex series, the Middle Ages with the GRAIL QUEST, SHARPE, of course, and regency England with GALLOWS THIEF, plus the STARBUCK chronicles. Is there a period of English history you’d like to tackle but haven’t yet got round to? Or are you happy to leave Tudor and Stuart England to Philippa Gregory? It would be interesting to see a novel by you on, say Charles I…

BC:  About the only certainty I have is that I’ll avoid the Victorians.  Kind folk keep asking me to write about the Crimea, or about the Zulu Wars, or about other imperial adventures, but for some reason the Victorians bore me.  The other area which is requested fairly frequently is the Crusades, but I’ve never managed to become interested. I’m carefully not answering your question, to which the answer is yes, there is at least one other period which I want to tackle, but I am extremely superstitious about identifying future projects. 

GM: Having recently read SHARPE’S CUT, about the making of the last TV film, it seems that your involvement in it was minimal. Were you happy with the end result, or did you wish you’d had more of a say? I love the character of Richard Sharpe, and Sean Bean is perfect in the part, of course.

BC:   I’m happy with the end result, though I haven’t seen all of it (just a shortened version). I never wanted any kind of involvement in the films; it isn’t my area of expertise (what is?). I worked in current affairs television long enough to know that I know nothing, zip, about making TV drama, so any involvement by me is likely to be an obstacle to the film-makers, and only an idiot puts obstacles in the way of people trying to help them. 

GM: SHARPE’S FURY is out here soon. Do you intend to carry on writing his adventures, and is he your favourite creation?

BC: I think there will be more Sharpe books. In fact I know there will be more Sharpe books, though I’m minded to give him a rest for at least a year after Sharpe’s Fury.   There have been 21 books so far, which is a lot more than I ever intended, but I still enjoy writing him.  I find, though, that he gets better if I take a year or two off from him. He’s certainly one of my favourites, but I have a sneaking regard for the Arthurian trilogy, probably because they were so much fun to write.

GM: I read somewhere that the Wessex chronicles will not finish with LORDS OF THE NORTH. Whilst no one would expect you say precisely how many books there will be in the series, I imagine you have an end in mind. Uhtred is in his seventies, I think, when he begins the narrative of his life and adventures. Will he be an active participant in events in Dark Age Britain until old age, or will there be a period of retirement?

BC:  I’ve just started the fourth novel in the series, so yes, there will be more. Lots more, I suspect, but I have no idea how many.  The series is, or is meant to be, the tale of England’s making, and that really isn’t complete until 937, by which time Uhtred will be ancient. But I suspect he will still be fairly active, even if he is on an Anglo Saxon Zimmer frame.  Or perhaps his son will take up the story?  When I start a book I have no idea how it is going to end, and that’s even more true of a whole series, but my feeling is that Uhtred has a long and bloody way to go.

GM: Did you base Uhtred on someone whose personal history you found during your research for the series, or is he all your own creation? Would you like to have been around during that period of our history, and do you see yourself as a warrior, a bard or a scribe? Or maybe a man of the cloth?

BC:  He’s based on a notional ancestor of mine.  Some five or six years ago I discovered my natural father, a wonderful Canadian with the surname Oughtred.  His branch of the family emigrated from England in the 19^th century, but have genealogical records going back to the 5^th Century.  In the pre-conquest era they were Earls of Northumberland and the lords of Bamburgh Castle, and they spelt their name Uhtred.  I had always wanted to tell the story of Alfred the Great, his son, daughter and grandson, but discovering that I had identifiable ancestors in that period made the whole project a lot more interesting.  Specifically I wondered how the family had managed to hold onto Bamburgh through the period of Danish invasion and rule.  The probable answer is collaboration, but no one knows.  There was an Uhtred in the period I’m writing about, but we know nothing whatever about him, so he’s an inspiration rather than a model.  Would I be a warrior?  Hell, no.  I’d probably have been one of those scheming, malevolent churchmen that Uhtred so dislikes.

GM: You’ve spoken at length about “The Peculiar People” in other interviews, so I’m not going to ask any questions about them – they’re easily found on the web, in any case. But at what point in your life did you realise they were truly “peculiar” and that you’d be better off away from them? Early teens, late teens?

BC:  God knows.  I can’t remember.  Certainly in my teens.  I think there was a suspicion much earlier when my mother told me she wished they had not adopted me.  I wished the same.

GM: Your early career as a teacher – did you teach history, perhaps? Did you enjoy the experience, or were you always hankering after a career in the media? At what pointing your life did you realise you wanted to be a writer of adventure stories?

BC:   I knew I wanted to be a writer from a very early age.  It was certainly an ambition by my mid to late teens.  I taught because I couldn’t find another job, but thankfully it only lasted for a couple of years.  I sort of enjoyed it.  Sort of.  I taught history and had an enthusiasm for it which the kids seemed to like, but I was not a natural teacher and was forever trying to escape the classroom.

GM: How important do you think the public library system is now that the multiple retailers and the online booksellers like Amazon, Play and Tesco are selling books like yours for less than half price? Even the Harper Collins site advises people to buy from Amazon and advertises titles at half price or less. This must have had an impact on the royalties you receive from the publishers? Sorry, a multiple question there, but all linked, I think!

BC:  Discounting books does have a huge effect on royalties, so these days canny agents are structuring contracts a bit differently.  The details are tedious, the effect is to keep us from starving. Discounting, of course, rarely applies (or not so much) to paperbacks, and they benefit from a wide sale of discounted hardbacks.  I really don’t have much clue about the public libraries, mainly because I live in the States so am cut off from what’s happening in Britain.  My local library on Cape Cod does a thriving business.  I’m never overjoyed when people tell me they’ve read all my books and borrowed them all from the library!  Still, I’m not starving, so I guess that’s fine.

GM: I know you like to relax sailing. Any other hobbies or interests that you’d rather be doing than writing? Do you see your writing as a job, or as something you really enjoy doing and just happen to get paid for doing?

BC:  Writing is a job, but it happens to be the job I always wanted.  I love it.  If I won the lottery tomorrow I’d still go on doing it.  I’m not doing much this summer - only on rainy days - the rest are spent on my boat, a Cornish Crabber, sailing around Nantucket Sound.  I’m also appearing in Macbeth for a local theatre.  Judy and I go to the theatre a lot, which means a lot of trips to London, but happily we both enjoy travelling.  My other distraction is a 1948 MGTC, the one with wire-wheels and flaring wings and chrome headlamps.  She’s being rebuilt at the moment (some previous owner welded panels on top of the frame, which is ash) so I’m temporarily bereft of her. 

GM: Were you surprised (and pleased) to receive the OBE this year? The BBC news item on the web says “a writer of historical thrillers”! This doesn’t really describe your work, does it? Historical adventures, I would have said…..

BC:   Thrillers?  Adventures?  Either will do.  I was both surprised and delighted.  I was also amused that Michael Winner turned down an OBE at the same time, his grounds were that it was a medal given to people who cleaned the toilets at Kings Cross.  I, on the other hand, am flattered to be in their company.

GM: Your escape from a “fundamentalist sect” through adventure novels is how the BBC phrased it. What adventure novels did you read as a child – Blyton? Edgar Rice Burroughs? Robert E Howard? Or the staple historical novelists of the time? Jean Plaidy, for example? Was history always your favourite subject?

BC:  My adopted parents were not too keen on non-religious novels, though they didn’t mind Enid Blyton, so I do remember reading the Famous Five.  I liked Biggles!  I recall the Just William stories and, of course, Robert Louis Stephenson.  History was my favourite subject and, once at boarding school, I consumed Alfred Duggan, CS Forester and the like, though I somehow missed Jean Plaidy. I always read avidly, and still do.

GM: How long a period of research do you devote to a period before embarking on the writing of the novel? Do you research each novel, or do you do all the research up front and then write the series through to its conclusion? For instance, is there anything further you need to research before you start on the fourth Wessex novel?

BC:  An almost impossible question to answer.  Much of the background research is a lifetime’s work, so impossible to quantify.  I’ve been reading about the Anglo Saxons since I was around 18 years old.  Normally, before starting a new book, there’s a dedicated few weeks of reading, but I get bored with it and usually start the book precipitately.  And, once started, the research gets very detailed so my desk ends up smothered with books and papers.  It’s also a chicken and egg question, because the plot idea will come from the research (I hope), but doing too much research is an ideal way to ensure that the book never gets written, and writing the book is the best way to discover what research still needs to be done.  I’m not even sure they’re discrete activities; I’m usually doing both together.

GM: A very interesting mix of music for DESERT ISLAND DISCS – presumably you’re happy to listen to any of those records whilst you’re relaxing? Do you have music on in the background whilst you’re writing?

BC:   Never!  Doesn’t work for me.  I’ve tried and it’s simply distracting.  In truth the Desert Islands Discs was a bit of a cheat.  I like all those recordings, wouldn’t have chosen them otherwise, but 99% of my listening is to classical music, and 90% of that is liturgical, but Judy wouldn’t let me choose 8 classical records because she thought it would be snobbish!

GM: Can you name the five authors or books that have most influenced you during your life? Following on from that, the five books you couldn’t do without (but didn’t necessarily influence you in any way! – if it’s the same five books, ignore the last bit!)

BC:   C.S. Forester, John Keegan.  Lots of others, but those two are influences of which I’m very conscious.  The one author I could not live without is John Cowper Powys, but why I have not the slightest idea.  I read him avidly and everything I can find about him.  He is as different from me as it is possible for two authors to be, and perhaps that is why I worship at his very strange shrine.

GM: I’m glad you like Gateway – it’s the generosity of authors such as yourself who give up their valuable time to “talk” to me that makes it all worthwhile! Thank you so much for taking part, and good luck with your next book.

Thanks!!