• Hard SF • Graham Joyce on Science, Superstition & Yeast • Peter James Interview £2.25 Spring 1995 • Reviews The Critical Journal of the BSFA 2 Vector Contents Remember PeIe1 James Interview Check the address label MartinRWebb How Ha,d IS SF? on your mailing to see if Paul Kincaid 14 Science, Supersl1lion & Strange you need to renew your Things Like Yeast Graham Jo,,ce subscription 20 Reviews Index 21 First lmpre~ions Reviews edited by Paul Kincaid 30 Paperback Grnff111 Vector Is published l7j the BSr/\ ,.,11995 Reviews edilec.l lly Stept1er1 Pt!yne /\II opinions are those of the 1nd1v1dua! con1r1bu t01 and should not be taken necessanly to be those of 1110 ed1toI or the BSFA. Editor Catie Ca1y 224 Soulhway, Park Barn, Guildford, Contr,bul,ons &111ey. GU2 SON Good a1 t1Cles are always wanted All MSS shoo Id be Phone; 0483 502349 typed double spaced on one srje ol the page SubmlSSIOns may also be accepted as ASCII text files Hardback Rev10WS on IBM, Afan ST or Mac 3.5• discs. 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GU1 4AP \kctons a ht-monthly publicaton of the BSFA. which also bongs the news magazine Matnx. and the writers' magazine Focus for on £ 18 pe, year (UK & EC). Concess,onary rates are available. For further details contact the appropriate address: NC/'N Members & Renewals: Alison Cook, 27 Albemarle Drive, Grove. Wantage, Oxon OX 12 0NB USk Cy Chauvin, 14248 WIifred Street, Detroit, Ml 48213, USA Peter James 3 Tailor-Made An Interview with Peter James by Martin R Webb here can be fe.v British writers who can boast "I was trying to get into the fil m industry - it the experiences of Peter James during his was then, as ii is now, I suppose; pretty near bank­ Tvaried and adventurous tile: from domestic (he ruptcy. I had an uncle in Canada who suggested I tr y once cleaned house tor Orson Welles' family) to my luck there globe-trotting in a second-hand hearse, from "When I got to Toronto I gal a job with a TV scriptwriter to film maker (his most well-known being station working on a programme for pre-school Dead of Night), from apprentice glove-maker to one children {Pork-a-Dot-Dor). lt was a thirty minute show of Britain's best-selling writers of suoernatural thrillers. going out five days a week.·· While being hailed as one of the most literate write,s of the genre, he is certainly one of the easiest he day the scriptwriter fell _i ll was a lucky day to talk to. On the drive to his secluded home (said to for Peter. He ended up wr1tmg the show for be haunted) we talked of our favourite authors and the Teighteen months before moving on to make publishing business in general. films like Children don't Play with Dead Things Over lunch he told me how his career began. For the ten years he was in films he didn't write one 'I started writing at Charterhouse, winning a word for a novel. He wrote to his agent. pointing out poetry prize (the kiss of death for anyonffwho wants his achievements. The initial reply cannot be printed to be a commerc ial writer) ·· here, but some sound advice was to follow: "If you Peter then worked on the school magazine want to write books, got to work 1n a library o r a which despie its cute name - Petal - was banned factory." DI the school authorities. He went on to write The While Peter was working on Spanish Fly {about Great British Bubble " ... which is still silting in a which Barry Norman is said to have commented: "This trunk in the attic some.vhere, but it got me an agent. has to be the worst British film since the Second 4 Vector World Wai. and the least funny ltlm eve, .... Peter's 1n 1967 some of Peters friends anended a 001,a fathe, was laken 111 and the family was thinking of board expenment - Pete, had been mv1ted but went selling lhe business (Cornella James - gkwe makers to a party instead. During the expe11ment 58'\le!al to the Queen) 1f Pete, didn't want 1t. p1edict1ons were made and came t1ue w1th1n a week, .. I desperately wanted to wnte and decided to and all involved a death Were these events the onty take sanctuary at home - almost hke laking a sabbal1 1nsp1rat10n tor the book? cal, really My lather said that 11 I wanled to come mto "All my hie I've had coincidences. none of them the business I would have to stall at the bottom. So. all that rema1ka~. bul I've always quest10ned them. at twenty-eight, I became an apprentice glove-culle, I 1'd be somew-here 1n 1he world and l'd meet someone was stdl 1,y1ng to get Biggies off the g,ound - l'd I was 1h1nk1ng about IIJSI bought the film rights. For lh1ee days a Vveek · 1 ,emember bemg al a ma1ket stall m Maua­ clocking 1n at the lacto,y, and lo, the other two I was kesh, 1n '67; I was J0998d and stepped back onto donning a suit and gomg up to London lo lry and someone's foot. When t turned 10 apologise I saN 11 ,ruse C3m tor Bigg}es," was someone I was at school w11h and han1 seen !or years It was about that time that he read an article saying that lhe1e was a shor tage of spy-thrille1s. he ee,iest coincidence happened while he was "So I decided to wnte a spy story (Dead Letter wntmg Prophesy. He had ius1 w11tten the Drop). I had no real Idea whal I wanted to wnle. It was Tchapter 1n which someone falls 10 hlS death a Chandleresque past,che about finding a mole m down a hft shaft lhal same day he heard a news 11em Ml5, and II got published." ,n which 11 actualty happened. The next mormng's post contained the second d1aft of the f1lmscnpt ol Two ITIOfe similar novets were to !<>"ow (Atom Possesstan 1n which the w11ter had, w11hout consult• Bomb Angel and Billionai1e) belOfe Peter found hlS 1ng Peter, included that ve,y scene. niche. Possession was. he says, based on personal In Twilight. his lhird novel. Pete1 used a experiences w1lh lhe supernatural Dreamer, his leas! 811ghton-based journalist (Kate Hemmingway) as his favounte book, !allowed by a year later. Sweet he101ne. Her brief reappea,ance in Prophesy led me Heart. a disturbing tale of 1e-1ncarnat10n established to ask if we might nol be seeing he, in another novel. him as, 11 nol the leader 1n the fiek:I of houor fict10n, a "When t 111st started writing, somebody gave me good second. In Sweet Heart, Charley's bets lnend the advice: · never kill your best characters. because 11 and par t-t1me employer. Laura, suggests a custome, upsels your readers•. I liked Kale, and I thought it buys a Cornelia James scad, the company of which would be fun 10 bring he, back in a cameo 1ole. In peter is a dlfeclor. Considering his position, I asked if l w il1ghl she was working on a small ru,al pape,, and \here were nay plans to base a novel 1n the clothmg the books all have dates in them. She wanted to industr y. progress to a bigger paper. Her boy friend had moved "Yes, I've 901 something on the back burner. I've on to the Daily Mail, and because there had to be always thought the best rag trade seen was in Klute. someone from a London paper In It. I included her to You know there is a killer aboul as Jane Fonda folla,,vs show she got her promotion. I have thought about Pat1 ick Machia between ra11S and ,ails of clothes in brmgmg her back. plastic bags, and she finds a body in one of the bags.~ Like most of us, Peter works regular hours, Tw ilight clearly llluslar led Peter's progressive lhough his week often includes Satu1days and quality while Prophesy 1elurned to the Iheme of Sundays. 1e1ncarnat10n. "When I'm actualty wntfng which is seven or eight months of the year, I guess. I stick to a ngid hile researching Prophesy Peter d1SCovered rou tine. I run about two miles fN8ry morning to many coincidences that suggest there might cha,ge up my brain, then have breakfast. About W be mo,e to ,t than pure chance: the stiong­ querier to nine I light my pipe (he quite cigareltes a est betng the Lincoln and Kennedy assassmatK>ns. couple of years ago) and SIi down to work. Lunch IS Both were shot in the back of the head; Lincoln m the around ooe o'clock, then I walk the dog (Jessie.