At All Times, Think Like A Writer,

A Lot Of Writers, Especially Crime Writers, Have An Image That We Think We're Trying To Keep Up With. You've Got To Be Seen As Dark And Slightly Dangerous. But I'm Not Like That And I've Realised That I Don't Need To Put That On. People Will Buy The Books Whether They See A Photo Of You Dressed In Black Or Not.

I've Always Written. At The Age Of Six Or Seven, I Would Get Sheets Of A4 Paper And Fold Them In Half, Cut The Edges To Make A Little Eight-page Booklet, Break It Up Into Squares And Put In Little Stick Men With Little Speech Bubbles, And I'd Have A Spy Story, A Space Story And A Football Story.

I Took The First James Kelman Novel, 'the Bus Conductor Hines', Home To My Dad. I Thought, 'my Dad Will Like This; It's Written In Scots.' But My Dad Said: 'i Can't Read That.' He Was Reading James Bond And John Le Carre. That Was Part Of What Attracted Me To Crime - The Idea Of Getting A Wide Audience.

Witches Never Existed, Except In People’s Minds. All There Was In The Olden Days Was Women And Some Men Who Believed In Herbal Cures And In Folklore And In The Wish To Fly. Witches? We’re All Witches In One Way Or Another. Witches Was The Invention Of Mankind, Son. We’re All Witches Beneath The Skin.

War Created Bizarre Allies, While Peace Itself Could Be Divisive.