An Interview with Maureen O'Brien,
Author of The Cutting
interview by Ayo Onatade
In addition to work as an actress, director and playwright, Maureen O'Brien is a successful novelist, of seven novels, five centering on the character of Detective Inspector John Bright. In this interview with Ayo Onatade (reprinted from http://www.mysterywomen.co.uk/), O'Brien speaks about her writing process, mainly for her mystery novels, but also about her theatre work, allowing the audience to draw interesting parallels between the two realms.
Ayo: As well as being a novelist you are also quite well known as an actress. Do you find it hard to juggle the two different "jobs" in your life?
Maureen: I've never found it hard. Acting jobs tend to come up when least expected, take maybe four or six weeks at the most - more likely two weeks or even two days, so I always have an imaginary deadline that could hit at any moment. This keeps my nose to the writing grindstone, getting as much done as I can just in case. An acting job gets me out of the house, away from the obsession. And though it can take time to get the concentration back after even a few days acting, I still make use of these breaks from writing to refresh me. It seems to me the perfect combination of jobs. Most years the acting finances the writing. Some years it's about 50/50. The acting gives me days with actors and crews - the best company in the world, new challenges, experiences of places and people I wouldn't otherwise encounter. I'm very fortunate to have been able to earn my living all these years at two such wonderful - and precarious - jobs.
Ayo: What made you decide to write a crime novel and particularly a series instead of standalone novels?
Maureen: I had written a radio play Going On which was produced as the BBC Monday Play. In those days Radio 4 had two great drama slots as well as the daily Afternoon Play. The Monday play was the more - not necessarily intellectual or solemn but serious whatever that may mean. Saturday Night Theatre was the more popular. These were often thrillers. After the thrill of my Monday Play I wanted to write a Saturday Night Theatre. I was very busy as an actress in those days (the 80s) so the idea simmered but there was no time to bring it to the boil until 86 when I suddenly found myself out of work with nothing on the horizon. First I was depressed and then I dreamed the first page of what became Close Up On Death. I had never thought of writing a novel - I'd given up the idea at the age of 10 when I decided I was a playwright and incapable of narrative. But this first page was certainly a novel and there was a body behind the door so it was a crime novel. See how much I decide things? And as for writing a series! God! I had no idea in those days that books were strictly divided into genres and heaven help you if you dare to cross the line. The first publisher it was sent to accepted Close Up On Death in 3 days And when they wanted DI John Bright in the second novel Deadly Reflection I had a hard time getting him in. If you read it you see how peripheral he is. Well, I got over that resistance but I treat him differently in each book, finding it difficult to write to the same formula over and over. I try to push the boundaries. I hope each book is different. In the early books he is seen through the eyes of the woman protagonist And even though I now have the courage to get more inside his head (I feel we're now well enough acquainted) I always have a strong woman protagonist in each book. Writing books with two protagonists is quite hard, a juggling act, but I must always have a strong female to challenge and counteract John Bright. He likes women and they, after an initial period of strong antagonism, grow passionately fond of him.
Ayo: Who were your influences when you decided to start writing and what books have had the most influence on you?
Maureen: Where to begin - I've read greedily since I could read. So everything from Jane Austen to Elmore Leonard. But think of all the drama I've done, the scripts I've studied as an actor all my life, learning economy, moving the story forward through dialogue, keeping it moving, never letting the audience off the hook. All that. Apart from the above mentioned writers and Raymond Chandler of course I'd read all Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Marjorie Allingham, all the classics, before I left school. But I'm just as much influenced by Samuel Becket, James Joyce. Now Dostoyevsky seems to be creeping towards me and I never really loved him. But I love Barbara Pym, Barbara Comyns, Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Elizabeth Jenkins - all the Elizabeth's and Barbara's, you see, and Bernice Rubens. Everyone you've ever read is an influence but all unconscious's, as much a part of your life as your own dreams.
Ayo: Part and parcel of being a crime writer is the camaraderie that goes along with it. Do you enjoy attending conferences and book signings?
Maureen: I'm very shy. So are other writers on the whole. I've always found the occasions you mention a great strain. I become as tongue tied and awkward as a 14 year old schoolgirl. But last year I was brave enough to take part in the NFT Crime Scene with the Rogues & Vagabonds, and even chairing a panel of people I didn't know. Rebecca Tope, Andrew Taylor and all the others on my panel were very kind to me and I felt safer than I had expected. This has given me courage and I shall be taking part again this year I hope. Signings are fine, I've discovered. I like "the public" and to feel I'm pleasing people. And to sell books!
Ayo: What part of the whole writing experience do you enjoy the most? Maureen: When my editor rings up, having read the book, and says, "Maureen, it's wonderful." I also love getting the cover and then the first finished book. And the paperback. That's the best of all.
Ayo: What is your biggest distraction when you are writing?
Maureen: Good weather. Life, really. I have to get into my workroom by seven AM-ish or life starts to invade in the shape of phone calls and people and general pottering about. So I try to leave Life for the afternoons.
Ayo: Where do you find it the easiest to write?
Maureen: In my little workroom at the top of the house in London. In my little workroom under the terrace in the house in France. But I can work anywhere.
Ayo: How do your stories normally come about? Do you already have an outline or do you just have an idea at the back of your mind and see where it takes you?
Maureen: Ideas come and go. But I can generally tell when one has come to stay. It becomes a gentle obsession, What if.......? I start to work out who these people are, their relationship to each other, why they are the way they are, what has their journey been to get to this starting point in the book? But I can't begin until I know the THEME. Until that comes I only have a story and that's not enough. When I know the theme I have a spine that takes the book from the beginning to the end and makes choices a little easier.
Ayo: Are you a crime/mystery reader yourself? If so do you still find time to read and what type of book do you prefer?
Maureen: I read all the time. Fiction and psychology mainly. If I find myself on the tube or in a hotel away from home without a book I have a panic attack. Yes I'm an avid crime reader. Ruth Rendell in both manifestations. Enormous respect. Reading The Killing Doll alone in the house I had to put it down for several days till my husband came back. That level of psychological shift is what I aim at. I await every Donna Leon with impatience and every Michael Connelly. Elmore Leonard, of course, always. Quite keen on Dibdin. Phil Rickman's Merrily Watson books. Strong themes. Great respect for Grisham - same reason - heart in the right place. And Mat Coward whose comedy - and heart - and style - are extraordinary. His short stories are unbeatable. Liza Cody's Bucket Nut I thought was a really great book. And Val McDermid's The Wire In The Blood. (What a title too) Simon Brett's Charles Paris books I love. Magdalen Nabb I enjoy and respect. I don't think in terms of types of book. I like good spare writing without too many adverbs. Elroy drives me mad he's so poetic. Others drive me mad because the writing's undisciplined and lazy. And there's a lot of imitation books: if I hear of another ex-pathologist following in footsteps, I'll give up. One publisher offered, "Your money back if this is not as good as P.Cornwell". This book was about bones. Before we'd hit page 10 the heroine "stopped the car and dropped her elbow out of the window." Come on! But I'll read anything within reason. I think I might have an aversion to the pseudo-tough where the style can cover an originality vacuum. I'm looking forward to reading Jake Arnott and George Pelecanos. And to the new Donna Taritt (though that's probably not strictly "crime". I wish books didn't have to be strictly anything. I mean, is Dostoevsky a crime writer?
Ayo: I understand that your second novel Deadly Reflection is about to become a feature film? How much input have you been able to have? Do you know when it is likely to be shown?
Maureen: Don't hold your breath. They say it takes 4 years from the buying of the option to starting to shoot. It's now three, I think. But my play The Cutting (just out published by Oberon Books) looks as though it might make it to the screen first. A German writer Arend Agthe is working on the screenplay now. I wrote 4 drafts of the script for Deadly Reflection and had many script meetings with director and script editor. It was hard but again a challenge and enjoyable if you discount the anxiety. However that was a few directors ago and I've now stopped thinking about it. I'm not holding my breath either.
Ayo: You are also a member of a group called Rogues and Vagabonds along with a number of other crime writers who are also actors/actresses. How did you become involved in this and has it had an effect on your writing?
Maureen: Fidelis Morgan had the idea and got me in. I like being part of a group. It makes me feel protected. I like the people in the group. It has had no effect whatever on my writing - how could it? I write alone as we all do.
Ayo: Unauthorised Departure is your latest book featuring D I Bright, what made you decide to turn the tables and make D I Bright the main suspect?
Maureen: I haven't the slightest idea. It seemed inevitable. I was interested in comparing French Police Procedure with British. Also I'm much more interested in people in a hard place than people catching villains. The innocent person accused appeals strongly to me. God knows why.
Ayo: What do you enjoy doing the most when you are not writing?
Maureen: Not writing. The usual things: eating, drinking, seeing friends, seeing movies, exhibitions, laughing, talking, gardening, reading, sleeping, London, France etc.
Ayo: Another string to your bow is the fact that you read a lot of books (not only your own) for audio. How did you become involved in this?
Maureen: Just one of the many fields of work of an actor. I did masses of radio drama and readings from the early 70s onwards. I even have awards for my radio work. - Two monologues: BY GRAND CENTRAL STATION I SAT DOWN AND WEPT and THE DUCHESS'S DIARY. Then I was asked to record Jane Eyre unabridged as an audio book. I loved doing it - like downhill racing, reading aloud 8 hours a day for 4, 5, 6 days. Middlemarch took ten days I think - 1000 pages. I've done all kinds of books for CHIVER'S (Now BBC AUDIOBOOKS) and love working with my friends there. The studios are in Bath and I enjoy going there too.
Ayo: If you were going away to a desert island and were only allowed to take five books with you which ones would you choose and why?
Maureen: Oh heck. Five? Hoping I get Shakespeare and the King James Bible as well.... War And Peace, Chekhov short stories, An Iris Murdoch but I couldn't choose which. Same with Ann Tyler. It's impossible. If I couldn't have at least a book every five days I wouldn't go to a desert island! Perhaps an Elmore Leonard - Stick or Switch or the complete works - a refresher course in how to write. Restoration or Sacred Country by Rose Tremain who for me is Britain's great writer. Ask me tomorrow I'd give you a different list. Maybe.