In Conversation With Elvis Shackleton #1

by Elvis Shackleton - 14:28 on 11 September 2009

To mark the end of the long running Barney Thomson crime series, in a series of informal discussions, Long Midnight Publishing Publicity Director, Elvis Shackleton talks to author Douglas Lindsay about each of the seven books. Today, the iconic first novel, The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson.

ES: The Sunday Mirror called it a chilling black comedy, Face said it was sure-fire top ten material, even New Woman said that is was pitch black comedy spun from the finest writing. It really was one of the more iconic debut novels of the 90’s, and yet it never really took off. Why do you think that was?

DL: It’s impossible to say for me, I feel too close to it. Maybe the marketing wasn’t very good, maybe the book wasn’t as good as the reviewers said, maybe it came out at the same time as a Rebus novel and everyone bought that instead. I’m not sure. Some things capture the public’s imagination, some don’t. You just have to accept how it goes and move on.

ES: Is it true that the character of Barney was based on a real barber?

DL: Yep. I think that’s what made him initially so attractive. That he was real. Everyone who reads Barney Thomson, knows someone just like that. Small-minded, full of petty jealousy. And dull.

ES: Tell us about the writing of the novel.

DL: Well, we had been living on the Mongolian steppes for six months, herding horses and living in a yurt.

ES: Gosh. Like, you were eating sheep’s testicle and stuff?

DL: Nah, that’s all a bit of an urban myth. Those guys don’t eat sheep’s testicles. They eat the regular parts of the sheep, but as soon as a western camera crew hoves into view, you can hear them shouting, like you know, shit, it’s Ewan MacGregor, get the pan of testicles on the fire! Then the Hollywood celebrity comes along and eats the testicles, because they think they’re being ethnic, but in fact the locals are just taking the piss. These days I heard the herdsmen sit around all day watching clips of Julia Roberts eating testicles on Mongolian YouTube and wetting themselves laughing.

ES: OK, so Barney Thomson?

DL: I was feeling homesick, so I just started writing a book about Glasgow. Wet weather, miserable people, funny people, people talking about football, all the things I missed. It really ought just to have been a story about Barney, but at the time I didn’t have the confidence for that, so I added the extra part about the serial killer.

ES: But that’s the best bit. That’s what makes the novel.

DL: Yep, I guess that’s how it worked out.

ES: So The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson nearly didn’t have a serial killer? That’s like Casablanca nearly starring Ronald Reagan.

DL: Yeah, that would have been awful. Watching Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan smooch, who’d want to see that?

ES: How easy was it for you to get published?

DL: I don’t suppose it’s ever too easy for people the first time. I had to send it around for a few years, finally got picked up by Piatkus Books, who had previously said no.

ES: So you were rejected by a lot of publishers?

DL: All of them. Except Piatkus.

ES: How do you think those publishers feel now?

DL: Relieved.

ES: And the film rights were sold before the book was even released. That must have been exciting.

DL: Well, I’m a child of Argentina ’78.

ES: You mean that you’re bitter and scarred, and know that hope and expectation just lead to horrible disappointment, a crushing of the id, and a dreadful blitzkrieg of disenchantment on the psyche?

DL: Exactly.

ES: So, you never got your hopes up?

DL: We’re currently on the third lot of people trying to get the movie made. I’m still not getting my hopes up.

ES: When did you first read from Long Midnight in public?

DL: It was at the Tron in Glasgow. A crime writers evening, so I was in the company of the likes of Christopher Brookmyre and Val McDermid and Denise Mina.

ES: What was that like?

DL: It was like they were professional crime writers and I was the guy who made the sandwiches. But it was a learning curve, and I hope I taught them how to make sandwiches.

ES: One final question. This is your most successful book to date. Is it also your best?

DL: These things are so subjective. I hope my writing’s improved since then, but this first one does have such a great plot, with absurdity growing organically from the characters.

ES: So you’re saying the book is organic? That it’s an environmentally friendly crime novel?

DL: That’s exactly what I meant.

Add your comment

Your Name


Your Email (only if you are happy to have it on the site)


Your Comment - no HTML or weblinks


Enter this number in the box below and click Send - why?Unfortunately we have to do this to prevent the system being swamped by automated spam