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Peter James Public Appearances In Germany, Austria and USA

posted by Peter James @ 9:27 AM   4 Comments

I'm still hard at work finishing my next novel, Not Dead Enough, but here's a preliminary list of appearances I'll making later in the year in Germany, Austria and the USA, to promote Looking Good Dead and Dead Simple. More details to come and I do hope you'll come say hello if you live in these locations!

Tuesday Sept 19th
Dresden, Germany

Thursday Sept 21st
Stuttgart, (Mont Blanc), Germany

Friday Sept 22nd
Kaiserslautern, Germany

Monday Sept 25th
Reutlingen, (Thalia bookstore), Germany

Tuesday Sept 26th
Marburg Krimifestival, Germany

Wed Sept 27th
Augsburg, (Gondrom), Germany

Thursday Sept 28 - Sunday Oct 1st
Bouchercon, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Monday Oct 2nd
Linz, Austria

Wednesday Oct 4th
Frankfurt Polizeipräsidium, Germany

Thursday Oct 5th
On Scherz stand at Frankfurt Book Fair

Wednesday, Oct 11th, Thursday Oct 12th
Paris, France

Friday Oct 13th, Saturday Oct 14th, Sunday Oct 15th
Cognac, France

Saturday Nov 18th - CANCELLED
Crime Time, Berlin, Germany

Monday Nov 21st - CANCELLED
Crime Time, Berlin, Germany

Sunday Dec 3rd
Munich, Germany

Summer Recess

posted by Peter James @ 4:59 PM   2 Comments

Please forgive me for not posting any more blogs until the week of August 1st. I have a drop-dead deadline for finishing my third Roy Grace novel, "Not Dead Enough", so I am having to put the rest of my life and work on hold to work 24/7 in this heatwave to do so! Talk about slaving over a hot keyboard....

But lots to tell you about when I come back online - including dinner with Sharon Stone, and the reasons why William Shatner and Nigel Havers are two of my least favourite people on the planet. As they used to say in one of my favourite magazines, Private Eye, watch this space, pip...pip...pip...!

Bloody Offal

posted by Peter James @ 2:49 AM   1 Comments

I had dinner with Kathy Reichs on Tuesday night, who was in a celebratory mood after learning her new novel had gone straight in the UK hardback chart at No.1.

She is a really delightful lady - very intelligent and extremely funny, but with the assembled company around that table, this was never going to be a dinner for the squeamish. In addition to Kathy, who as well as being a global bestselling author is a practicing forensic anthropologist, there was her companion, Robert Dorion, who is a forensic dentist, based out of Montreal, and wrote the definitive book on the subject, Bitemark Evidence, my old friend Dr Peter Dean, police surgeon and Coroner for Essex, and the immensely smart and fun Susan Sandon, Kathy's publisher (who was also mine when I was at Penguin some moons ago).

The conversation began to degenerate as we pondered the menu, with Kathy leading a detailed forensic analysis on all the meat dishes on offer. I'm not sure quite what prompted me to order sweetbreads in the company of two people who have seen more decomposing internal organs than most of us - perhaps it was the challenge. I was soon regretting it. When my plate arrived the sweetbreads were subjected to forensic scrutiny, followed by Kathy telling me, animatedly, that these were the thymus, and explaining exactly where in the body they were located - followed by their function. By the time she had finished I could have done with a doggy bag to slip them into, as I had suddenly, mysteriously, lost my appetite...

Apart from that, the restaurant, Roussillon in Pilmlico, was one of the very best places in London that I have eaten in for a long time. The food was quite stunning, the staff among the nicest I can ever remember, and of the copious libations of champagne and wine was - unexpectedly - a memorable Soave.

However, not content with ruining my dinner, over breakfast at Claridges the following morning the full British works - eggs, bacon, mushroom, sausage (clearly spending your working hours with the dead gives you an appetite) - Robert Dorion cheerfully talked me through the poisons and bacterias secreted in a human bite - as part of my research for my next novel, Not Dead Enough, and how within a few days it could kill you if not treated. A human bite is one of the most venomous bites on the planet. We apparently contain all kinds of nasties. Which could explain something that has puzzled me for a long time:

Some years ago, whilst staying with some friends in Brecon in Wales, we set off for a Sunday morning hike up the Brecon Beacons. But our friends' elderly long-haired daschund was having problems climbing up into the car. It got its front paws over the door sill but couldn't get its hind ones to follow. I gave it a helpful lift up, and for my troubles, it bit me, deep and hard, with elderly, spiky teeth the colour of rust. Instead of our hike I ended up in the A&E department of Brecon hospital having a tetanus jab. A few days after we had returned home I rang my hosts, who asked, concerned, how my hand was. I told them it was fine and jokingly asked how the dog was. "Dead," they replied. It had been diagnosed with acute septicaemia the day after biting me and was dead forty-eight hours later. You have been warned... I don't bite - no need to - I now just let my enemies bite me!

Peter James Does Porridge

posted by Peter James @ 5:15 PM   3 Comments

I just spent this morning in prison. As you can see from the photo... But I bet you didn't know that some cell blocks have dry cells! A dry cell is where you are taken when you are first arrested, with no running water and no lavatory so you cannot get rid of any evidence...


PJ doing porridge


Such is the hard stuff a writer has to go through in the cause of research... In my new novel, Not Dead Enough, which I'm currently writing against a scarily looming end of July deadline, for June 2007 publication, I have a character who is arrested on suspicion of murder. So I wanted to go through the process that he would go through - the whole procedure of what happens when a person is arrested in Brighton. And thanks to two officers, Mark Powles and Julian Clapp, I was given the full Monty!

I used to think it might be quite interesting to be arrested and go to prison: I've always been a great admirer of the late composer Sir Arnold Bax who one said, "Try anything in life once, except incest and folk dancing." But after today's experience, I'm thinking twice... or maybe even three times, about getting arrested.

It is a really dehumanizing experience. Being fingerprinted, and photographed and then having a DNA swab in your mouth taken are the easy bit. It is when you get to stand in front of a Custody Sergeant, like an errant schoolchild in front of the headmaster, to be booked in, and searched that reality slams home. A searching officer puts on clear latex gloves before touching you, then works from the head down, removing jewellery, watches, your belt, and worst of all, your glasses (in case you try to turn the lenses into a weapon to harm yourself). Then it gets worse still. If you are in for a particularly serious offence, or it is believed you may have evidence secreted on you that you may try to get rid of, of if you haven't washed since committing a crime such as shooting or arson, and residues could be on your skin, you are taken to a dry cell, where all your clothes are removed (if required for forensic testing) and you are given a blue paper suit and black slip-on shoes. Then you are taken to a normal cell, which has a washbasin and a lavatory and stinks like a public latrine, and you are on your own, with no daylight, total silence and just your thoughts.


The sign you never want to see!


Some years back I lived near Ditchling in Sussex and was friendly with the local pet shop owner in Hassocks, who was also the video man, who got jailed for illegally copying videos. He told me when he came out of prison, that the biggest problem with being inside was the warders getting angry at you if you didn't buy drugs from them..."

That reminds me of the time my business partner, James Simpson (who famously co-wrote the music for Spitting Image) who was chatting to some locals in a bar in Oldham, Lancashire a couple of years back and asked them, "Do you have a drugs problem up here?" One astonished local shook his head and said, "No mate, no problem at all. Can get you anything you want."

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