Hi all. I have been very fortunate to have been asked by the lovely people at Hachette Australia if I would like to do a Q & A with Peter May when he is in Perth for the Perth International Arts Festival in February 2016. I am so excited!
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- Coffin Road
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- Runaway
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- The Black House
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- The Chessmen
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- Runaway
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- Entry Island
I know from various chats on my blog (and off my blog) and on other bookish blogs that Peter’s books are much loved in the crime fiction world. I would like your help in formulating some interesting questions for Peter. Any ideas are welcome. Can be about the many many successful books he has written ( I have highlighted just a few), his characters, inspiration, his favourite authors, his love of music ( I am going to ensure that he is asked about his next music video – the last one that FictionFan shared was a treat) or anything else that you have a yearning to know about Peter May.
Help me out, add some questions in the comments and lets make this the best Q & A he has ever participated in !
Reading, Writing and Riesling 
What an exciting opportunity for you, Carol!! You must be so happy about this! I’d love to know his views on Chinese crime writing vs the tradition as its unfolded in the UK (since he’s been to both places).
Excellent question Margot – thank you! And yes I am so thrilled to have this opportunity. Really looking forward to Peter May arriving in Perth.
I have lots of questions:
Does he think he will ever return to China as a location for a crime novel?
Why are the French so smitten with his books (the Lewis trilogy was originally turned down by British publishers and was first published in translation in France)?
Will he ever set a book in France?
Thanks MarinaSophia I’ll make sure to include some questions re France/settings etc
Having recently read Coffin Road and having heard that the preservation of the ecosystem is prevalent in his China novels – I’d like to know more about where his interest in this cause came from.
Thanks Cleo for another great idea.
Just so you know, he did an entire series set in France – the Enzo files, about a scientist looking into old unsolved cases. The first one is called Dry Bones, if memory serves me right, and there were about six of them, I think. They came after the China thrillers and before the Lewis trilogy.
I’m struggling with questions, TBH, ‘cos I kinda know a lot about him already. You might want to ask him why he chose Lewis as a setting – that’s quite interesting. Or how about asking him how he went about doing the research for the China novels.
Thanks FF I’ll take your advice on board (I have research to do to) His website looks interesting. Have you read all his books?
No, I read most of the China thrillers and the ffirst couple of the Enzo books (which I don’t think are as good as his others to be perfectly honest), and then I’ve read all the rest. But he also had a hugely successful career as a scirptwriter and producer before he went back to writing – he wrote for a big Scottish soap for years, Take the High Road, and also produced and wrote an amazingly successful Gaelic language soap, Machair. So again, you might want to ask about his career before writing, since he’ll be interesting about that. Maybe what does he ffind the major differences between writing for TV and writing novels or something?
(Sorry about all these double fs – there seems to be some kind of glitch on WP at the moment…)
He also sprang to fame when Richard and Judy picked The Blackhouse – I don’t know if you know about Richard and Judy? They’re kinda the UK equivalent to Oprah Winfrey and hugely inffluential – they can make someone a household name. So you might want to mention that… or not! I’m sorry – I’m not trying to interfere, just thinking of things that might get you interesting answers… 🙂
Not interfering at all , this is so very interesting. And no we don’t have Richard and Judy but I have seen the names mentioned on book promotions.
Did you see my comments on FB?
I did Deb and will add them to the list – thanks for you help – exciting isn’t it?