Author John Harvey develops through Darkness and Light
by Chris High

As a veteran author of some ninety novels, John Harvey finds that his appetite for writing remains undiminished, if derived from a different area. 'The appetite now, as ever, comes from the need to earn a living and it does tend to get a little more difficult as time passes,' John admitted, 'this is true with all genres of writing, but certainly with crime because there are only so many fresh scenarios that can be explored and only so many ways to discover a body. That said though, I still manage to sit down every day and write something.'

John's third Frank Elder novel, Darkness and Light (William - Heinemann), was published in April and sees the former Detective once more confronted by family issues, both on a personal and professional level. 'All three Elder novels - Flesh and Blood, Ash and Bone and now Darkness and Light - hold an emotional core of family crisis. That Frank is forced to confront his particular crises during the course of his work, as well as at home, adds the different aspect of his personal traumas to the novel by making him ask some searching questions. Parental love is manifest in many ways and this is a novel that is centred around these incumbent emotions, both good and bad.'

The development of both Elder and Maureen Prior has been a long process. 'Frank and Maureen first appeared in a short story published in a CWA anthology, and turned out to be a forerunner to Flesh and Blood. That both characters have aspects of their lives with which they are unhappy, makes their raw emotions shine through and so makes them more accessible. Writers rarely write about people who are content, though I am in the process of addressing this with the book I am currently writing. There is also the possibility of Resnick reappearing some time in the future,' John said.

John Harvey has a varied writing scope and his books cover westerns, biker tales, poetry, screenwriting and radio adaptation. For a writer who is so clearly versatile, the decision to concentrate on crime was in the end, however, almost accidental. 'Commercial writers know what the market demands and crime has always been, and will forever remain, popular. I'm extremely fond of Elmore Leonard's work and I thought if he can make writing crime this much fun to read, why not give it a go? I started to write crime after Central television ran two TV series on which I worked called Hard Cases, centred on the Probation Service in Nottingham. The series was screened a year prior to my first Resnick novel being published and set my mind to thinking of crime fiction as a genre I could make a career from.'

John's first career was as a teacher in Nottingham. 'I'd never written anything before my first pulp fiction piece, other than the odd essay or article. To have something published at my first attempt was extremely satisfying, though I do admit to being very fortunate. One of the reasons I used to use pseudonyms was to satisfy different publishers, who were unhappy at one of their authors writing for somebody else. At that time, I don't think I had a discernible style of my own and my "voice" is something that I've developed as I've gone along.'

John has three main pieces of advice for prospective authors. 'You must have the wherewithal and self-discipline to write regularly. Secondly, reading widely is essential. The more you read, the better you'll write. Thirdly, it is paramount to understand that, for the most part, in order to get published you must have a commercial proposition. Publishers will only ever publish books that will make a profit. Study the markets.'

John Harvey will be appearing at Harrogate Crime Festival, Edinburgh Book Festival and Lincoln Book Festival, where he will be in conversation with Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin and others.
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