Mark Billingham

Sun Herald

Sunday November 28, 2004

Interview by Rosemarie Milsom

Animal Farm

> George Orwell

This was read to me when I was at school; I would have been about 10. Looking back, we had quite a forward-thinking teacher and we were read really interesting books. At the time I thought Animal Farm was a great story the pigs, horses, cat . . . I obviously wasn't sophisticated enough to pick up on the allegorical stuff about communism, but even then I kind of had an awareness that there was something more going on with the story than met the eye. I love the way books can do more than just tell a story they can work on so many levels.

The Godfather

>Mario Puzo

I appeared on a TV show in the UK called Battle Of The Books where they would pick a couple of books and it was set up like a courtroom and there was a judge and jury etc and they were there to determine which book was the better read. I defended The Godfather against Crime And Punishment. I maintain it's a better read, not necessarily a better book. It was my first brush with a grown-up popular novel. I had a fantastic summer when I was 14 where I stayed with my grandmother and I read a whole bunch of adult books. Reading The Godfather really stands out; it was like being punched. I remember the power of it, the incredible storytelling, plus there was the appeal of the dirty bits. It had this kind of kinetic energy and reading it was like watching a movie. I've always been hugely drawn to popular fiction and it all started here. I guess that's what I try to write.

The Big Sleep

>Raymond Chandler

I was about 18 when I read this. I remember thinking, "Oh God!". It had an enormous impact on me. It was about action, character, and the most incredible dialogue. It leapt off the page to me and I fell in love with mystery fiction. There was a kind of glamour the guns, the cars, the women. I didn't make a decision then about writing crime/mystery fiction but it planted a seed. I've never tried to copy Chandler but I have to acknowledge that I owe a debt to him and his tradition. I've gone back to his work a lot in recent years and I suppose I read it differently now that I'm a writer you see the tricks, the technique but it never fails to inspire me.

Red Dragon

>Thomas Harris

I picked this up at an airport knowing nothing about it but I was sucked right in. Harris writes incredible suspense and he nails the characters very quickly. This book just cuts straight to the chase; it's absolutely wonderful. Hannibal Lecter is the most chilling, brilliantly drawn psychopath. In the later books and the films he became a kind of cartoon but in this earliest manifestation he is fantastic. Red Dragon was the template; it made me want to write a book that keeps you turning the pages because of the suspense. It's beautifully written. After this I then started to read a glut of serial-killer books and they were all really inferior to Harris.

The Burning Girl by Mark Billingham is published by Little, Brown.

© 2004 Sun Herald

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