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Speaker 1: He thrilled to have in the studio with me. Us.

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Speaker 1: The prolific author Michael wrote both of them with his

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Speaker 1: latest book, Storm Child. Michael, good morning, Welcome to Adelaide.

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Speaker 2: Thank you out here to pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Well, you're a Sydney boy, but you've spent a large

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Speaker 1: part of your working life over in the UK. How

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Speaker 1: did you get You were in newspapers originally in Sydney.

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Speaker 1: That was the first job that was there.

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Speaker 3: I started started as a cadet journalists in Fairfax in Sydney,

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Speaker 3: and then like a lot of journalists and made the

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Speaker 3: pilgrimage to Fleet Street in the UK. Worked on Fleet

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Speaker 3: Street for ten years and then became a ghost writer

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Speaker 3: of all things.

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Speaker 2: So I goostroat sort.

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Speaker 3: Of celebrity autobiography, so great and the good everyone from

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Speaker 3: sort of Jerry Halliwell to Lulu to Rob Harris for

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Speaker 3: my sins. Yeah, I can't tell you everyone. I'd have

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Speaker 3: to kill you math.

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Speaker 1: Is that right? Or you've forgotten maybe some of them

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Speaker 1: along the way. Hey, Before that though, when you were

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Speaker 1: features editor, I've read you you did some remarkable research

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Speaker 1: on letters from Stalin Well.

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Speaker 3: I was a journalist on the Mail on Sunday, and

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Speaker 3: I became the first Western journalists had got access to

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Speaker 3: the Moscow State Archives after the collapse of the Soviet Union,

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Speaker 3: and I mean just treasure trove of information, things like

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Speaker 3: the Resputant files, Stalin's Hitler files, and the Nicholas and Alexandra,

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Speaker 3: the Romanov family photo albums. We love letters between Nicholas

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Speaker 3: and Alexandra, the children's diaries that still had flowers pressed

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Speaker 3: between the pages of this tragic family. And all those

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Speaker 3: diaries were written in English, and all the letters were

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Speaker 3: in English because Alexandra was an English princess. And it

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Speaker 3: was yeah, I mean it was the making of me

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Speaker 3: as a journalist reading in so many stories.

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Speaker 1: And Nicholas was related to Queen Victoria, wasn't he.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they were all I mean, there was a lot

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Speaker 2: of there.

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Speaker 3: They were also in breeding there, you know, That's why

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Speaker 3: certain diseases ran through the royal family.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, but probably the most amazing.

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Speaker 3: Find was the Hitler files because Stalin the Russians were

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Speaker 3: first into the bunker at the end of the Second

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Speaker 3: World War to Hitler's bunker in Berlin, and Stalin refused

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Speaker 3: to believe that his great enemy Hitler could have committed suicide,

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Speaker 3: and so he arrested six of Hitler's closest aids, his

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Speaker 3: personal physician, his driver, and took them back to Moscow

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Speaker 3: and they were imprisoned for years and years, and they

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Speaker 3: were interrogated daily. And they also took back the top

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Speaker 3: of a skull with a bullet hole through it, which

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Speaker 3: was purported to be Hitler's skull. It's since been proven

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Speaker 3: that his hitless skull, and I have held it in

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Speaker 3: my hand. Well, quite creepy. And the bloodstained sofa that

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Speaker 3: Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide upon was broken up

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Speaker 3: and rolled into the fabric and the wooden spars were

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Speaker 3: rolled together, and that was in the box as well,

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Speaker 3: the actual bloodstained sofa, and a photograph was in the

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Speaker 3: box as well.

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Speaker 1: Goodness of them sitting on it presumably.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it was quite I mean, the DNA testing

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Speaker 3: wasn't good enough in nineteen ninety to prove that was

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Speaker 3: Hitler's skull, but it's since been proven that it was.

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Speaker 3: And it was the most amazing treacher trove of information

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Speaker 3: to sort of uncover because it gave an account of

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Speaker 3: Hitler's day to day life, any sort of sexual pecadillos

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Speaker 3: and all sorts of you know, the fact he used

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Speaker 3: body doubles like Saddam Hussein.

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Speaker 2: Ya.

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Speaker 3: It was paranoid about being assassinated on me, all this

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Speaker 3: new information that had never come to light.

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Speaker 1: Wow, how about that? All right? So back then you

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Speaker 1: came back to the UK after that, obviously, and at

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Speaker 1: some point became the ghost writer and then started writing

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Speaker 1: for yourself.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was.

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Speaker 3: I'd always wanted to be a writer ever since I

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Speaker 3: grew up in very small country towns in Australia like

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Speaker 3: gunder Guy in New South Wales was where I spent

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Speaker 3: a lot of my childhood and I dreamed of being

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Speaker 3: a writer. And so I was in between projects and

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Speaker 3: I wrote one hundred and seventeen pages of a book

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Speaker 3: called The Suspect, which has just been on the TV

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Speaker 3: series that It has just been shown on the ABC

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Speaker 3: in the last few months, and it triggered a bidding

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Speaker 3: war at the London book Fair in two thousand and

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Speaker 3: two and in the space of three hours sold into

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Speaker 3: more than twenty translations.

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Speaker 1: Wow. And you would have felt good about that, I

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Speaker 1: mentioned it was amazing.

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Speaker 3: I always choked if I tell people that the phone

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Speaker 3: was running hot at sort of three in the morning,

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Speaker 3: we were back in Australia, with my agent telling me

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Speaker 3: that all these people were bidding from around the world

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Speaker 3: and that you don't go to sleep after something like

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Speaker 3: that nfety. So by seven thirty in the morning we'd

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Speaker 3: spent the money and by eight o'clock we'd cast the

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Speaker 3: Hollywood film Goodness, and eight thirty the sheer terror set in.

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Speaker 3: All these people think I can finish a book.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's it. It was only a partial manuscript.

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Speaker 3: It was only one hundred and seventeen pages, and I

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Speaker 3: had no idea it was a crime novel I had.

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Speaker 3: I had no idea how it finished. I don't plot

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Speaker 3: my books in advance. I just created these characters.

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Speaker 1: That's interesting because you talk to different authors and as

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Speaker 1: I have over the years, and plotting is so important

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Speaker 1: to so many of them, and you know, having that

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Speaker 1: rundown in advance.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there are the sort of plotters and pantss that

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Speaker 3: we refer to them, and I'm a seat of the

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Speaker 3: panther and I just sort of let the characters take

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Speaker 3: the story, which is a very organic way of writing.

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Speaker 3: But when I come in from my writing room, which

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Speaker 3: my children have called Dad's kbana of cruelty. When I

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Speaker 3: come in and say to my wife, you would not

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Speaker 3: believe what just happened. Well, then I figure if I

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Speaker 3: don't see it coming, then neither will the reader.

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Speaker 1: So if I've got this right, you start writing without

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Speaker 1: any clue how it's going to end.

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Speaker 2: No clue really.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, But at the end of the day, even though

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Speaker 3: you know when you're writing the genre, plot is so important.

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Speaker 3: If I were to ask you what your favorite crime

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Speaker 3: novel was, you would immediately tell me about the characters,

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Speaker 3: long after you've forgotten what the plot was and the

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Speaker 3: ins and outs of the plot.

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Speaker 2: It's the characters that draw.

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Speaker 3: People in and hold them and bring them back to

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Speaker 3: certain writers.

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Speaker 1: All right, I'd give you an answer of Raymond Chandler

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Speaker 1: would be top of the list. Philip Marlowe.

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Speaker 3: And if you were telling someone about that, you start

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Speaker 3: talking about Marlowe and exactly all the great attributes of Marlowe.

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Speaker 3: And if I asked you will tell me about the plot,

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Speaker 3: you probably think, well, what happened?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, No, you're right, You're absolutely right. So that's interesting, Okay.

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Speaker 1: Is it difficult to go from character to character? Joseph

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Speaker 1: O Lochlin one of your characters, and the character here

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Speaker 1: Cyrus Haven. Now o lachlan is what six books or so,

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Speaker 1: and Cyrus is three or four now, So is it

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Speaker 1: difficult to get out of the o' lachlan mindset and

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Speaker 1: get into the Cyrus mindset?

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Speaker 3: Oddly enough, it was a bit like you know, when

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Speaker 3: I was ghost writing, I would have to move on

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Speaker 3: to a new if I did my Joe well as

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Speaker 3: a ghostrit, I would go strite in the first person

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Speaker 3: for someone and nobody would see my fingerprints on it.

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Speaker 2: It would look and sound and feel.

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Speaker 3: Exactly like Jerry Hallowell, or exactly like Lulu, or exactly

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Speaker 3: like Tony Bullamore. And fiction is a bit the same,

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Speaker 3: and you're creating these characters and they live and breathe

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Speaker 3: in my sort of a man and a lot of

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Speaker 3: my major characters and books have had had female first

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Speaker 3: person narrators. And I often tell people that my wife

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Speaker 3: has to come to terms with the fact that I'm

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Speaker 3: having an affair with another woman.

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Speaker 2: And We'll be out for.

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Speaker 3: Dinner and I'll get a kick under the table and

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Speaker 3: she'll go, you're with her, aren't you.

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Speaker 1: In your mind? Yeah? Absolutely, because you're probably thinking the

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Speaker 1: plot through all the time as you're writing it.

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Speaker 2: Well, you'd be living it if you don't plot in advance.

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Speaker 3: You know, when your characters are in great, great danger,

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Speaker 3: then you're in great danger with them. And they keep

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Speaker 3: following me through the house that are saying, how are

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Speaker 3: you going to save us, Michael?

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Speaker 2: How are you going to save us?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? So, okay, you got you got to know the

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Speaker 1: answers to that, that's for sure. What's next? Howf are

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Speaker 1: you taking Cyrus at this point? Cyrus Haven? Is she

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Speaker 1: going to keep going?

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Speaker 3: I think with this one with Cyrus and e the

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Speaker 3: this is the fourth book in that series, and I'm

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Speaker 3: not I don't have an idea for a fifth the moment,

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Speaker 3: I have delivered a book for next year, which won't

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Speaker 3: be an Eve in Cyrus. But people often ask me,

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Speaker 3: am I going to bring Joelchlan back? And I think, well,

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Speaker 3: never say never. There's always chance I might bring him back.

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Speaker 3: It's there reason I swap around a bit. I liken

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Speaker 3: it too. I write in the first person, and it's

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Speaker 3: like living in a two man tent with your best

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Speaker 3: friend for a year, and it doesn't matter how good

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Speaker 3: a friend they are. After a year you was bit

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Speaker 3: sick of them, Yeah, and you sort of want to break,

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Speaker 3: and so by jumping to a new character or a

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Speaker 3: new series, I get that break.

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Speaker 1: So it takes roughly a year to produce a book

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Speaker 1: like this, like Storm Child as you're talking about at

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Speaker 1: the moment. Now there's some standalone books as well. How

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Speaker 1: difficult it is is it to get into those?

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Speaker 3: I think the most difficult one standalone I did was

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Speaker 3: a book called Life or Death, which is set in Texas.

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Speaker 3: And it's sometimes you can write a book like that

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Speaker 3: if you're writing a fish out of water.

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Speaker 2: If I was taking an Australian character to Texas, then

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Speaker 2: it would work.

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Speaker 3: But when you're writing a book purely in Texas, you

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Speaker 3: can't afford to get it wrong. And that takes a

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Speaker 3: lot of research. And that's about a man who escapes

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Speaker 3: from prison the day before he's due to be released.

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Speaker 3: And that actually came about I read a paragraph about

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Speaker 3: a man who's served two life sentences in Australia and

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Speaker 3: escaped the day before they were released. And I carried

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Speaker 3: that clipping around for twenty years, thinking why, and eventually

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Speaker 3: I came up with Life or Death, which is the

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Speaker 3: first of my books to win the UK Gold Dagger.

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Speaker 2: It was sort of the big crime running award.

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Speaker 1: How about that? And that is a fascinating story. So okay,

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Speaker 1: that's interesting. There's films in German or TV shows, aren't

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Speaker 1: there in German on Joe Lachlan.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they've done seven. They've done seven films based on

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Speaker 3: the Joe Locklan books in Germany. I mean, that's one

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Speaker 3: of my biggest markets. I don't know why. I mean

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Speaker 3: I toured there quite often, and I know it was

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Speaker 3: quite bizarre when one of the film's premiered and I

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Speaker 3: was taken across to Hamburg for the premiere and I

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Speaker 3: walked the red carpet with all the actors and then

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Speaker 3: sat in the cinema. Of course, I was the only

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Speaker 3: person in the cinema that couldn't understand a word because

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Speaker 3: they didn't providing this sub for me. So that was bizarre.

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Speaker 3: I mean, obviously I could follow the story because I

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Speaker 3: wrote the theme, I couldn't understand a word of what

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Speaker 3: people were saying.

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Speaker 1: That's funny. So it's certainly a big market. Nevertheless, if

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Speaker 1: you're writing about Texas, do you have to go to Texas? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: You do.

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Speaker 3: I had to and the journalist in me or the

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Speaker 3: ex journalist in me means I have to have walked

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Speaker 3: the streets and and like this latest book, Storm Child

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Speaker 3: is sort of set in Nottinghamshire and in Aberdeen, so

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Speaker 3: I had to go up to Scotland and spend weeks

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Speaker 3: up there sort of talking to coast Guard and Royal

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Speaker 3: Life Saving people and fishermen and to get all the

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Speaker 3: sort of background to it. It's so I try to

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Speaker 3: be so accurate that I'm one of the few fiction

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Speaker 3: writers that gets that gets legal because lawyers will ask

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Speaker 3: me whether the particular house that I've described on a

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Speaker 3: particular corner, whether it exists and it looks exactly as

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Speaker 3: I describe, and I'll go yeah, absolutely, And I go, well,

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Speaker 3: you have to change it because someone lives in that house.

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Speaker 3: You've put three bodies in their front run.

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Speaker 1: Off, you go rewrite. Okay, any books in Australia.

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Speaker 3: No, But it's a question I get most asked when

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Speaker 3: I'm touring. I've been touring at the moment nationally and

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Speaker 3: that is the question I will get asked at the

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Speaker 3: event because you're Australian. They say, why don't you set

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Speaker 3: a book here? And it's coming. Okay, it's coming, maybe

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Speaker 3: not the next one, which I've delivered, but the one

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Speaker 3: after my twentieth novel. It's time I came home.

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Speaker 1: Okay, twentieth Well amazing, Michael. And it runs in the family.

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Speaker 1: You've got a daughter who's a songwriter.

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Speaker 3: I have a songwriter producer who is done. You worked

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Speaker 3: with Troy Sava and Alanas Morrissett and has lived since

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Speaker 3: the age of twenty in the Los Angeles and Nashville.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: So enjoying that. Obviously You're in conversation tonight the Howling Owl,

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Speaker 1: just off Rundle Street in the city, six pm. Few

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Speaker 1: tickets left through try booking. Michael, It's been great meeting

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Speaker 1: you today. Thank you for your time. I guess no

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Speaker 1: regrets leaving Australia heading up to the UK then.

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Speaker 2: No, but also very please to come home.

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Speaker 3: When I bought my family, I wanted my kids to

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Speaker 3: grow up back in Australia and so that's been wonderful.

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Speaker 1: And you're based here now. Obviously I am.

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Speaker 3: Based in Sydney and you know, touring the country at

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Speaker 3: the moment, but I mean this is home and for

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Speaker 3: all its guess overseas, you know it means Moore when

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Speaker 3: you're successful at home.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, Michael Great meeting Michael wrote both and my guests,

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Speaker 1: the book Storm Child, the latest book Stormchild. If you've

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Speaker 1: bought his books along the way there's pain, there's quite

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Speaker 1: a lot of them. The Joseph O. Lackland series and

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Speaker 1: so many others are the Cyrus Haven series, the standalone

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Speaker 1: novels The Night Fairy, bomb Proof, Life or Death, The

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Speaker 1: Secret Sheet Keeps When You're Mine, It goes on and on. Amazing,

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Speaker 1: Well done, Michael Great meeting you and tonight the Howling Out.

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Speaker 1: Try booking is where you go for tickets