For many people, hes one of the creators, stars, and writers of the seminalThe Fast Show.
If you havent done so already, I implore you to go and start reading it now.
Im a huge fan, and Ive detailed my reasons here.
Well when anyone ever asks me what I do, I always just say Im a writer.
Pretty much everything Ive ever done has always started with writing.
Its what I enjoy doing most.
For those who have yet to readThe Enemyseries, what would you say to convince them?
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[Laughs] Id tell them Im one of Britains greatest writers!
Theyd be missing out on a lot of fun.
Well what more could you ever want from any book, film, or TV show ever really?
Well I wanted them to be proper horror books.
Kids themselves are very good at self-censoring.
If they dont like something, if they think its too strong for them, theyll simply stop reading.
Its the thing about a book, you cant force someone to read it.
A lot of people worry too much about what kids might read.
It can sit alongside many adult horror books.
It implies that the kids are swearing, but I cant put that in the books…
But other than that, Ive written them exactly as if I was writing an adult book.
Its a bit like a James Herbert book except without the sex with tramps…
I thought about the young James Bond books in the same way as well.
Rather than being childrens books, they are simply books where the main characters happen to be children.
On one level you could sayLord Of The Fliesis a kids book.
Its about children although he didnt write it as a childrens book.
With 70s horror films in mind, what was the main inspiration for the series?
Well obviously my love of George Romero zombie films was my starting point.
The other great thing about horror is that its not gender specific.
A horror cover doesnt say no girls allowed.
Then I thought if Im going to do scary books, what scared me?
you’re free to do a lot with zombies.
George Romero himself freely admits his films had a strong satirical element to them.
He was talking about American society and a lot of the stuff that was going on at that time.
Kids dont need to know any of that, they just want someone to be eaten again.
Ha, of course.
Its great to be scared of a monster we thought we knew again.
Yeah its a tricky thing, especially with zombies.
Everybody loves to make zombie films because they do have such strong recognizable imagery.
Which is the reason I chose not to make them pure zombie.
They are not reanimated corpses, they are people who are very badly diseased.
So that gave me the option to make some of them stronger characters.
Well that actually leads nicely into my next question.
One of the things you seem to be doing is introducing an overarching mythology of the Sickness.
Did you always have it pre-planned, or did it evolve as you were writing?
Its sort of evolved.
So as a reader youre working things out alongside them.
I had some ideas knocking around when I started, but theyve certainly solidified.
How much planning do you do for all your books?
If the second book was about a completely different set of characters and see what theyre doing!
And people have bought into it.
It just makes it all more interesting.
Well I have a lot of time to get it straight.
It takes a year to write a book.
I can hold all the series in my head, the characters and what theyre doing.
Also I have very good copy-editors and proof-editors at Penguin who verify I dont make any major errors.
Yeah, I think his was meant to be a trilogy as well.
Yeah, that has grown and now he has all this complex interweaving story.
So he had a brainwave.
He checked them all into a hotel and had one of them plant a bomb there.
Which solved his problem in one fell swoop!
Which is what George RR Martin occasionally does when he thinks, Christ Ive got too many characters!
Ive done that along the way.
Some very useful characters with strong emotional ties.
[START OF SPOILER FOR THE DEAD]Theres a character inThe Deadcalled Bam.
Yeah I was really shocked, he just gets a sudden meat cleaver in his head!
Yeah [laughs].
I really liked him!
He was that lovable buffoon everyone knows.
He was very cheerful, and I think it gave the readers a sense of hope.
[laughs] Now I look a bit cruel!
[END OF SPOILER FOR THE DEAD]
Whos your favourite character to write for in the series?
Well I really like writing for The Kid because hes sort of half-nuts.
I can have fun with language and references.
His brain is wired differently.
Whos the hardest to write for?
I want to shake things up a bit.
(laughs) This is a very big question!
I think a lot of people are quite surprised I write such nasty books.
Beyond the finale of this series, what next is on the horizon for you?
Well Ive got a couple of big TV projects on the go.
The main one is a big 10-hour fantasy drama series for ITV.
If all goes well, it should be on our screens next September.
But because its early days I cant actually tell you that much about it sadly.
Finally, and my editor will insist I ask this, do you have a favourite Jason Statham movie?
A favourite Jason Statham movie?!
Yes
[Laughs] I dont know how many Ive ever watched!
Im actually quite a fan ofLock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.
When it came out there was nothing quite like it around.
It had a sense of humour and fun to it which I liked.
But at the time it was nice to see new bunch of kids on the block.
Well done, keep doing that!
Although I havent particularly made sure Ive watched every one of his films.
The Hunted is out now, published by Penguin, priced 7.99.
