My guest today is award-winning crime writer Barbara Nadel.
Lovely to see you again, Barbara. What can I get you to drink?
B: Hi Anne. Thanks very much. I’ll have a raki with ice and water please. Lovely Turkish anise spirit. Mmm.
Although I don’t actually drink any more, because this is “virtual” I will let my hair down.
Do you recall where we first met? All I remember is being in awe of you.
B: You know I really can’t remember. I know I’ve known you for a long time and that the last time we met up was at Morecambe & Vice last year. It’s always so great to meet up, just wish that I had more time for lovely crime festivals and CWA events. I think you’re lovely, by the way. You do so much whilst writing your fab books. I’m such a slouch when it comes to publicising my stuff and doing events. Not that I don’t try, but I’m not terribly confident with on-line stuff and often my family commitments mean I can’t get out and about as much as I would like. That you were in awe of me is really flattering but quite bizarre!
Well we never know how we appear to others, do we? One point we have in common is Essex where I went to school.
B: Yes, I do live in Essex at the moment, although I
have lived all over the place. I was born and brought up in East London and
that is the place I most identify with. Like you I’m a family person and have a
grown up son as well as lovely four-year-old grandson. Animals are a big part
of my life, especially cats, I love the tiger picture on your website. I so
often bond with people over cats – big or small.
I took that photo at London Zoo with my daughter and
granddaughter so it feels special. Taking them out will be a treat post
lockdown. What are you looking forward to?
B: Being with my family and friends again. I miss my son and grandson SO much and just would so love to cuddle them now. There’s also my mum as well as all my mates who I just long to talk to in person. I’m not alone in lockdown though as I do have my husband and my two cats and my axolotl, Hattie, for company. Something I want to do when the lockdown is over is learn to dance the Tango. What, I hear you cry, is someone with two left feet doing that for? Well, Tango is massive in Istanbul (or was before lockdown) and so I am thinking of exploring this phenomenon via the medium of crime fiction. I don’t think I’ll have Ikmen dancing, he wouldn’t, but I think that someone, as yet unknown, may have attended a milonga (Tango dance event) with ill intent.Another thing I’m looking forward to is when we are allowed to travel again. Can’t wait to get back to my beloved Istanbul as well as making a start on my exploration of Albania. I’m setting a new crime fiction book, possibly the start of a series in Albania during the 1930s. A very interesting time in that country when, although seemingly allied to the fascist regime in Italy, Albanians were actively helping those escaping from Italy and Nazi Germany. Albert Einstein was able to leave Europe to go to America because the King of Albania, Zog, gave him an Albanian passport. Won’t be starting this book until 2021, but I’ve already got a title which is The Apothecary’s Shoes.
I love the sound of that new series. So at an event
what would be your idea of a dream panel?
B: Oh I’d love to be part of a discussion about the
nature of magic and reality and where those two realms meet – if they do.
Magic, both on stage and as an esoteric concept has obsessed me for almost my
whole life. You’ll find it threaded through all my books. As for participants
well, I think that ideally some of them might be dead, but let’s not be
small-minded about this! Firstly I’d have to have prominent 19th century
Hungarian Professor Josef Vaneck, court magician to Sultan Abdul Medjid. People
still puzzle over how he did his signature trick. Lovely Derren Brown would be
a must as well as Maxine Sanders from the world of Wicca and ritual magic.
Cleopatra knew a thing or two, so we’d have her as well as my crime fiction
mates Quentin Bates, Ewa Sherman and Dr Noir. They all know a lot about
Icelandic elves. For a little eye candy we’d have to have Dracula and finally,
Miriam Margolyes, to tell us all we’re talking nonsense.
Wow that’s some panel and I’d love to be in the
audience. So what’s next bookwise?
B: At the moment I’m dividing my time between writing
my next Ikmen book – a double murder this time – and producing detailed
synopses for the person who has been chosen to write scripts for an Ikmen TV
series. Still not certain of course, but I am keeping everything crossed as I
would love to see the old git on the screen.
The next book of mine to be published, by Headline on 12
May, is called Blood Business, number
22 in the Cetin Ikmen series. To whet your appetite it begins with a spooky
exhumation in Istanbul’s largest graveyard. As usual it’s full of the energy of
Istanbul and its people and will, I hope, encourage as many folk as possible to
go there when they can. If lockdown is teaching me anything it’s that I miss my
friends and family so much it almost hurts. When we all get out of this I’m
going to run around visiting all my people and places regardless of cost.
However, I have been poor during the course of much of
my life and so psychologically this will not be easy. Money has always been a
problem and so I’ve got into the habit, over the years, of holding back from
things I want for fear life will fall apart and I won’t be able to pay the gas
bill. I was one of those kids who went to a school above my pay grade and so I
got used to being the one who didn’t go on the trips abroad. Then it sort of
came to define me. But no more my friends! From now on there’s not going to be
any more freaking out about money and I will bloody well see who and what I
want! Which means a lot of crime fiction festivals next year!
Let me hear an “Amen” to that!
Been lovely having a good chin-wag Anne and
look forward to seeing you soon. I must say, the raki was intense!
Barbara I’m sure people reading this will
now know why I’m in awe of you! It was a joy to have you in my virtual lounge
and I’m really looking forward to a big hug next time we meet.
