Hard news
Spooks creator DAVID WOLSTENCROFT may well be enjoying the good life in Los Angeles. But as Allan Radcliffe discovers, he’s still working like a dog.
avid Wolstencroft is a wordsmith whose star is
firmly in the ascendant. Having created
Channel 4‘s challenging one-series-and-out mental health drama Psychos. the Hawaii-born. Edinburgh-raised writer went on to dream up the hugely popular. award-winning BBC spy drama Spooks. Currently based in Los Angeles. following a decade of grinding out the miles on the London screenwriting treadmill. Wolstencroft recently released his first novel to an appreciative American public. Gum! News. Bad News charts similar territory to his most successful screen creation. being the tall tale of a pair of dysfunctional photography development shop colleagues who both turn out to be working for the same shadowy espionage concern. To add further spice to this unlikely plot twist. Charlie and George turn out to have each been recruited to assassinate the other.
While the action-packed plot occasionally stretches credibility to snapping point. Wolstencroft‘s debut makes an exhilarating. page-turning thriller from the early sequence in which the two spies attempt to bump each other off before teaming up to outwit their employers. ‘I first had the idea about six months before I started developing Spooks.‘ he reveals. ‘But at the time I found the idea of writing a novel daunting. so the germ of an idea became the television series. Later I took a sabbatical for my own sanity and decided to do something a bit different. so I went back to that idea and started writing it as a novel. spurred on by a lot of encouragement from my agent
34 THE LIST 6-20 Jan 2005
‘THE SOYA IN HER CAPPUCCINO WASN'T AT THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE'
Wolstencroft found himself appreciating the novelty of a solitary working life. ‘l'm very lucky that my TV series have been very collaborative. but you still relinquish a certain amount of control. A novel gives you control over every aspect. I could literally do anything and wouldn't have a production manager saying: “No. we can‘t afford another explosion.” Despite the thematic similarity between this novel and Spooks. the most striking aspect of \N'olstencroft‘s career CV to date is his versatility. The writer puts his ability to script dramas about psychiatry and spies as well as his forthcoming feature film Shooting Dogs (about the genocide in Rwanda) down to an abiding fascination with history.
‘I was a historian and that‘s how I got into spies and psychiatry. I used to get up and hear about the death toll in Rwanda every morning but not know much about it and it was a huge challenge to do justice to such an important event with the film. It's not a lecture. You wish to illuminate the event and there's a responsibility to get it right.’
Currently working on a second novel. Wolstencroft is more than happy to bask in the California sunshine for the moment. 'lt‘s fascinating to live in this insane culture. I was writing Shooting Dogs by the sea and a woman was complaining that the soya in her cappuccino wasn‘t at the right temperature. It's absolutely the other end of the world. but I always wanted this experience to knock me out of myself a bit.‘
Good News, Bad News is published by Hodder & Stoughton on Mon 17 Jan.
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THE BEST BOOKS, COMICS & EVENTS
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>l= DavId Wolstencroft The
Edinburgh-bred creator of Psychos and Spooks launches into a vibrant thriller about the perfect spy. See preview. Hodder & Stoughton.
>2: Peter Carey The twice- winner of the Booker (clever chap, eh?) got a cultural lesson from his young son about the joys of the Far East. And then he wrote a book about it called Wrong About Japan. See review. Faber
=i< MIchaeI White Everything you ever wanted to know about Machiavelli but might have been afraid to ask anyone is here in the historical biography subtitled A Man Misunderstood. See review. Little, Brown.
=l< Pat Mills 8: Joe Colquhoun This pair give us the Platoon-like Charley's War, the miserable tale (in a good way) of a 16-year-old who fibs himself into the army. Something he kind of regrets as the world blows up around him at the Somme. See review. Titan Books.
>i< Metaphrog The wee charmer Louis returns for a fourth adventure pertinently titled Dreams Never Die, soundtracked by the ever amazing Mam. See review. Metaphrog.
>l< John Hegloy The Luton legend (pictured) does his charmingly comic poetic thing with slices of joy from his Uncut Confetti. John, we love you fella. Dundee Rep, Thu 13 Jan.
>l< After Hours: Picturing Poets An evening of top notch chatter and readings from the magnificent Liz Lochhead. Janice Galloway and Jackie Kay. See Around Town. Weston Link, National Gallery, Edinburgh, Thu 20 Jan.