Hard Truths

How crime authors write

De: Tony Black

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Hard Truths is an 85,000-word collection of interviews with the crime genre's most accomplished writers. As both an award-winning journalist and one of the most acclaimed crime writers of recent times Tony Black is uniquely placed to cross-examine crime fiction's bestselling authors. Names like Ian Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Andrew Vachss and William McIlvanney reveal the secrets of their craft in a series of interviews conducted over the last five years. Black takes an often no-holds-barred approach and pushes friendships to the limit as he teases out the truth on subjects as diverse as politics, the writing life, popular culture and personal histories. Always entertaining and often heartfelt these exchanges offer an entertaining, humorous and eclectic look at some of the genre's leading lights. "For anyone at all interested in crime writers and crime writing – hell, for anyone even vaguely interested in writing and stories – this is an indispensable collection, full of insight and revelation." - from the foreword by Doug Johnstone, author of Gone Again The Interviewees: Ian Rankin Stuart MacBride Ken Bruen Irvine Welsh Caro Ramsay Andrew Vachss Stephen Leather Cathi Unsworth R.J. Ellory Simon Kernick William McIlvanney Allan Guthrie Les Edgerton Paul Sayer Martyn Waites Howard Linskey Shona MacLean Nick Stone Ian Hamilton Bob Mayer Declan Burke Ray Banks Russel McLean Barry Graham Craig McDonald Nick Barlay Charles Ardai Ian Rankin on his early career: "When I started, and for the first half dozen Rebus books, I got scant-to-no media attention. I could walk into Edinburgh bookshops and find the shelves bereft of Rankin titles; it was all more than a little depressing." William McIlvanney on writing crime: "I never had that - well coming from my background you wouldn’t - snobbishness that says you have to write literature. It’s all books, and if they work they work and that’s it." Andrew Vachss on the power of fiction: "Fiction often has a greater power to expose truth than non-fiction, especially given the extent to which journalism has degenerated." Simon Kernick on researching crime: "The average mark-up on a coffin is 1000%. No wonder it costs so much to die."