Peter Robinson |
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Peter Robinson was born in Yorkshire, England in 1950. After getting his B.A. Honours Degree in English Literature at the University of Leeds in 1974, he moved to Canada and was admitted into the graduate program at the University of Windsor. There he studied with Joyce Carol Oates and got his M.A. in English and Creative Writing in 1975. He later studied at York University where he received a Ph.D. in English Literature in 1983.
His first novel, Gallows View, published in 1987, introduced his popular
Inspector Banks series. It was short-listed for a best first novel award in Canada and for the John Creasey Award in Britain. A Dedicated Man followed (Scribner's; August,
1991) and was short-listed for the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award. A
Necessary End and The Hanging Valley (Berkley; April 1994), both Inspector Banks novels, came next with the latter being nominated for a best novel award.
Past Reason Hated (Berkely; November 1994), his fifth Inspector Banks novel,
won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1991 and the
Torgi Award for best talking book, presented by the Canadian National Institute for the
Blind, in 1994.
Caedmon's Song, Robinson's first departure from the series, was published
in Canada in 1990 and was also nominated for an award. His short story, "Innocence"
(published in Cold Blood III, (1990) won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short
Story in 1990. It was later reprinted in The Year's Best Mystery and Suspense
Stories, 1992 (Walker Books). Robinson has also written a number of other short
stories which, along with his novels, have been nominated for many various awards.
Wednesday's Child (Berkley; July 1995), his sixth Inspector Banks novel,
was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.
His next Berkley Prime Crime hardcover was Final Account.
Since getting his Ph.D., Robinson has taught at a number of Toronto colleges.
Between 1992 and 1993 he served as writer in residence at the University of Windsor.
Robinson currently lives in Toronto with his wife Sheila Halladay.
Acclaimed crime author Peter Robinson took a little time out of his tour schedule to answer some questions for our mystery readers. Penguin.ca reveals all!
How did you learn so much about detective work and criminology?
I don’t know that I did. I suppose I picked up quite a bit from textbooks, some comes from the horse’s mouth, and the rest is pure imagination. I write the book first, then when I know what questions I need to ask, I ask them. It’s not so much a matter of getting everything right as it is serving the demands of the story. It comes down to what I can get away with and still have it be believable.
You have a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D., all in English and writing. Did you ever consider criminology as well? If you weren’t a writer, would you ever consider being a detective or a criminologist? Why or why not?
No, I never considered criminology, though I did consider psychology at one time. Then a psychologist told me that psychologists get their material as much from writers as from anyone else, so I didn’t see the point after that. I don’t think I’d make a good detective. For a start, I’m not very good at following orders and filling in forms (like Banks!), and I don’t like the sight of blood.
You teach crime writing. How is it different from a regular writing course?
It’s probably just a little bit harder because you also have to deal with technical matters such as structure and making sense along with everything else. The nuts and bolts are the same, but the discipline is harsher. In crime writing, it’s not enough to write what you feel, however it comes to you. In some ways, you’re more like an actor inhabiting a number of roles at once rather than an individual expressing himself.
When you first started writing, did you ever envision the kind of success that the Banks novels are currently enjoying?
Not at all. It amazes me to think that I’ve published sixteen Banks novels over almost twenty years (the first came out in 1987). Success didn’t really start coming until my tenth book, In a Dry Season (1999), but I hung in there through some pretty lean years. Now it seems more difficult for writers to get started. If they don’t make the cut by their second or third book, they’re out. It’s hard to imagine a publisher giving a novelist ten chances to prove herself in today’s market.
Alan Banks is not your typical crime-fighting hero. For example, what made you develop him into such a sympathetic, jaded person by writing about his marriage, his boss, and so on?
I was always more interested in the human side of detection than in the exercise of the little grey cells. I suppose that comes from starting out reading Raymond Chandler and Georges Simenon rather than Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. I am also fortunate that most readers of contemporary detective fiction like some emphasis on the personal life of the detective. So my books are about a man who works as a detective and some of the things that happen to him in his life and through his job.
Do you ever base parts of Banks’s personality or other characters on people you’ve known or met in real life?
Rarely. It’s therapeutic to kill off people you don’t like sometimes, though, they’re usually so self-absorbed they wouldn’t recognize themselves in a month of Sundays.
Your books contain a fair amount of social commentary woven into the story, for example, racism and white power in Dead Right. Do you consciously decide to write about these topics or do they occur as a result of the subject matter?
The victim comes first, and the victim usually has a social context. I wanted a dead neo-Nazi in Dead Right, but not because I think all neo-Nazis ought to be killed. Whether I think that or not is irrelevant to the story. I wanted the victim to be a neo-Nazi because there’s another reason for his murder, something beyond the obvious. If you’re a serious writer, it’s impossible to overlook the state of the world we live in, especially these days, when such crimes as terrorism, people smuggling, and drug dealing know no borders. Someone picking a poppy in a field in Afghanistan can have a profound effect on the life of a poor, working-class kid in Cleckheaton without either of them knowing it. It’s the writer’s job to bring out that connection.
The inevitable music question: Music is peppered heavily in your books and you obviously know a great deal about it, even if you might not necessarily like all of it. Why do you feature it so heavily throughout your work? Who are your favourite artists, and what have you been listening to most lately?
Sometimes music is a soundtrack and sometimes it’s a background, but it’s always there in the books, I suppose, because it’s always here in my life. I grew up on rock and my all-time favourites are Elvis, the Beatles, Dylan, and the Grateful Dead. I love the Stones and Hendrix and Johnny Cash, too, and wouldn’t want to do without any of them on a desert island. I also listen to more classical music as I get older. I think my favourite composers are Schubert (songs and piano sonatas especially), Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams. I’ve been listening to a lot of Shostakovich lately, though, and love the string quartets and symphonies.
What exactly does your research consist of when you go back to Yorkshire every year?
Sitting in pubs, eavesdropping on conversations! The research isn’t very structured. Most of that sort of thing I can do from here on the internet or at the library. When I go back, mostly I absorb the atmosphere and keep my eyes open for any changes.
How do you think your readers perceive the Yorkshire setting as opposed to somewhere in North America?
The English setting comes with its own peculiar pedigree, which includes golden age writers such as Christie and Sayers as well as more modern practitioners like P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. I didn’t really know of any other Yorkshire crime writers when I started out, but now I know Reginald Hill and Robert Barnard, among others. I know a lot of my Canadian readers are ex-pats or have family connections with the U.K., and I have to think they wouldn’t be quite so interested if I set my books in North America.
I read briefly that you were putting together an Inspector Banks tour in Yorkshire. Can you leak any details of that to us yet?
I haven’t heard from the organizers in a while, but the last time we talked we thought it should take in Dales highlights like Richmond, Ripon, Skipton, Reeth, Hawes, and Gayle, and probably a few other peripheral places such as York and Harrogate. I honestly don’t know if it will happen or not. Like TV, these things are ultimately beyond my control.
Are you currently working on (or planning) a new novel?
Yes, but I can’t really say anything about it yet as I’m only in the early stages.
When do you think you will eventually retire Inspector Banks? Do you have any post-Banks plans?
I haven’t thought of retiring Banks, but if I find I have nothing more to say about him, I hope I recognize that fact and move on.
Arthur Ellis Award: Winner 2001
Edgar Allen Poe Award: Winner 2001
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