Dugald Bruce-Lockhart on not reading War and Peace, his love of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses and the books of his childhood.
The first book I remember reading:
Other than the Ladybird book of dinosaurs, the first proper story I remember reading was Shadow the Sheepdog, by Enid Blyton. Along with Gerald Durrell’s novels, my mum used to read Enid Blyton’s Adventure Book series to me and my brother, when we lived in Cyprus – and I always identified myself with Philip, who loved – and was loved by – animals. I was smitten by the adventures that befell the famous four (not five, in this case) and the cliffhanger endings Enid placed at the end of every chapter. Shadow the sheepdog also struck a chord, as my maternal grandmother (meow – yes, that was our nickname for her) had a sheepdog/Shelti cross called Sheppy.
A book I recommend to everyone:
This would have to be The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, by Joel Dicker. Never has a story kept me in so much suspense, or enthralled as to what might happen next (which I believe is the primary and possibly ultimate aim of any storyteller). The brooding New England setting, the growing tension and spreading of suspicions – along with the sub-plot of the pushy agent trying to get his client to complete and publish his novel, all whilst under suspicion of murder, and trying to catch the killer – is breathtakingly compelling.
The best book I have read in this year:
William Boyd’s Gabriel Moon. There is the wonderful spy thriller element to relish – the layman, who becomes entangled in espionage thrills and spills (not unlike the protagonist in The Lizard and Second Skin) – but also, the author’s unmatchable ability to set a scene with a few strokes of the pen. There is something else in Boyd’s writing, which appeals to me – as a fellow Scot who was born and raised abroad – which is the sense one has of his characters always seeking for something more than the world they inhabit – a sense of longing and justification for their existence.
The book I am most looking forward to:
Charles Cumming’s Icarus 17. His first book A Spy by Nature was the catalyst that made me set pen to paper with true intent, despite having kept a diary for twenty years prior to that, and writing the odd short story. I have read all Charlie’s books, and time and again I am amazed at how he has the ability to make you think the book was written for you – or that somehow you have lived – or might live – that life in another incarnation. Like W Boyd, he effortlessly blends international scene-setting prowess with action – often jumping back in forth in time, which is a skill I envy hugely.
A book I didn’t finish:
War and Peace. I was at drama school the time, and had marvelled how, on a family holiday in Greece, my father had managed to polish off Anna Karennina; so I thought that this was a good time to get stuck into a similar classic. But the old hardback tome I possessed was so small of print, I couldn’t get beyond the first chapter, without the sensation of going blind, so I decided I’d wait to get my hands on a paperback. I confess I have failed in this promise to myself, but fully intent to make amends when the children have grown up and the holiday doesn’t involve throwing them for one end of a swimming pool to the other.
An author that has inspired me:
Mick Herron has both inspired and – I have to say – overawed me, with his inventive ways of description, sentence structure, rhythm and dialogue – everything, in fact. He is so utterly original in his storytelling. I had to put down Slow Horses, while writing Second Skin, because I felt too intimidated. I thought: I’ll never be able to match up to this. So that’s my mission – to attempt something like it. But I think I have to wait until I’m writing in the third person to do so. Maybe when I branch away from the Alistair Haston series…
The book I am reading now:
Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. I started this on holiday, and it’s one I can’t finish, for the simple reason I have to keep going back over it. Such wise and grounded psychology as to how to live in the moment – how to free yourself from the inherited head talk of prior experience and social influence that traps you in your everyday thinking. Every page is full of quotable paragraphs… I want to memorise them all, and do a one-man show on it. I imagine someone probably has already done just that, aside of Eckhart himself. You must read it!
Second Skin by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, a thriller set in the Greek Islands and Cyprus, is published in paperback by Muswell Press on 19 June (£10.99).
Read more of The Good Books here.
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