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Val McDermid - Author
Val is an award winning crime writer originally from Kirkcaldy, Fife where she was a member of her local Brownies."Being a mother has made me more conscious of human fragility - my own and other people's."
I think I would say that there are elements in Scottish crime fiction that make it distinct
not just from English crime fiction but also from American, Scandinavian, Italian, etc.
It seems to me that contemporary Scottish crime fiction does have two distinctive elements -
one is a concern with the darker recesses both of society and of the individual personality,
and the other is the black humour that lightens that darkness.
I think this reflects the Scottish character - the gloomy, serious Presbyterian side versus
the party-loving Gael!
William McIlvanney's Laidlaw. This was the first contemporary Scottish crime novel that really demonstrated the possibilities for all of us who followed in its footsteps. It's a great read, compelling and unnerving, and it wowed me when I first read it.
Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This isn't just an archetypal piece of storytelling in its own right; it's also the grandparent of every psychological suspense novel that has followed it. It's genuinely terrifying and its horrors linger long in the mind.
Of my own books, I would probably take A Place of Execution. I think of all my books, the finished version comes closest to what I was trying to achieve. And the descriptions of the winter landscape might lower my temperature on the really hot days.
To finish what you've started. So many people get bogged down trying to write the perfect first
chapter, continually trying to make it perfect. Then they realise it will never be perfect and
they get discouraged and give up.
I'd tell any aspiring writer to fare forward - nobody ever wrote a perfect first chapter and
besides, by the time you get to the end, you'll probably need to go back and rewrite it anyway.
It's hard to single one thing out - there have been a lot of milestones along the way that have
mattered a great deal to me.
Winning my first major award, the Gold Dagger; being voted an Icon of Scotland; being mentioned
on The Archers; but I suppose the thing that underpins all of that is the simple fact of being
able to make a living as a writer. So many people aspire to that but relatively few of us ever
make it.
I'm not sure if I could characterise it as entirely complimentary, but there have been two separate instances where women have told me that reading The Mermaids Singing caused them to go into labour…
All of them! When I reread them, all I can see are their flaws…
I remember always feeling that my uniform never really fitted me properly and it wasn't very practical for doing a lot of the physical things that were fun in the Brownies. What I enjoyed most, I think, were the sausage sizzles - my first experience of outdoor cooking!
Sara Paretsky is the writer who most directly and obviously inspired me. I was considering trying
to write a crime novel, but I didn't feel comfortable with the police procedurals and the village
mysteries that typified British crime fiction at the time.
Then I read Sara's first novel and it was like a light bulb going on in my head - this was so
much the sort of book I wanted to be able to write.
I related to the urban setting, to the strong independent female protagonist, and I liked that
the book had a sense of politics, both in the personal and the social sense. I think Sara has
been a huge influence on women's crime writing in Europe and she continues to write terrific
books.
I suppose I would say it has made me more conscious of human fragility - my own and other people's. There is no fear of loss greater than that of a parent. And that knowledge has perhaps allowed me to write with greater sensitivity and empathy about what I could before only imagine.
I think I'd like to have been Annie Lennox with the Eurythmics. Sensational voice, great songs and so much energy - not to mention being drop-dead gorgeous!
Research into Alzheimer's. This
is a disease which strips people of their humanity and causes immeasurable grief to the loved
ones of those who fall victim to it.
Getting old is hard for everyone, but to suffer the indignities of Alzheimer's is an inglorious
end to any life. We are an ageing population and anything that reduces that burden for those
who have to carry it has to be a good thing.
To find out more about Val please see www.valmcdermid.com
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