Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham
Mark Philip David Billingham is an English novelist whose series of "Tom Thorne" crime novels are best-sellers in that particular genre. He is also a television screenwriter and has become a familiar face as an actor and comic...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 July 1961
characters good great interest people red tricks twist
When you think of a great twist or a red herring or a way of misdirecting the reader, it is good, but you know that they are just tricks at the end of the day, and the way to keep interest is to write characters that people care about.
comedy duty good hook hope minute reader start time walk whether
Whether you do stand-up comedy or write a story, you have a duty to deliver. As a comedian, you walk out on stage, and you have a minute to hook them, or they'll start booing. As a writer, it's very similar. A reader doesn't have time to say, 'I'll give him 50 pages, as it's not very good yet, but I hope it'll get better.'
ask open people twisted whenever
Whenever people ask where I get my sick and twisted ideas from, I reply, 'Just open your eyes.'
becomes certainly reader
The day a character becomes predictable is the day a writer should think about moving on - because the reader certainly will.
discovered grew
I discovered reading through libraries. I grew up in a house that wasn't brimming with books.
admire clumsy four nail pages writers
I admire writers such as Elmore Leonard who can nail a character in three or four lines of dialogue, so he doesn't need pages of back story or clumsy exposition.
aware suddenly
I read 'Jaws' and 'The Godfather' back to back one summer when I was 14 and was suddenly aware of how powerful fiction could be.
cared deal great neither
It's heretical, I know, but I've never really been able to get on with Agatha Christie. She is, of course, a giant of the genre, but I never feel that she cared a great deal about the characters. Consequently, neither do I.
detectives trend tv
In the 1970s, there was a trend for all detectives on TV to have some quirk or gimmick, and this was often physical.
adapted good hope muppet tv
All you can hope for when you get a book adapted for TV is that you get a good actor and not some muppet off 'EastEnders.'
biography compelling elvis history love mix music peter timeless train
I'm completely absorbed by Peter Guralnick's definitive, two-part biography of Elvis Presley: 'Last Train To Memphis' and 'Careless Love.' Meticulously researched, this is a compelling mix of history, myth-busting, and, of course, some timeless music.
time
I've never read an ebook. Print every time.
fields grew life richer tapestry wild
I'm a city boy. I grew up in a big city, in Birmingham, and I want to write about a city. It's much richer tapestry for me than green fields. Fields and wild life make me feel ill. I don't like - I don't want to write about that stuff.
branch days drive fall finally gone lights obsess realised starbucks touch traffic turn whether
I do have a touch of OCD, and I used to obsess about research. But I'm better than I was. Gone are the days when I would drive to a set of traffic lights to find out if you could turn left. I finally realised it didn't matter. A book will not stand or fall on whether or not there's a branch of Starbucks in Brixton.