In Conversation With... Peter James

The bestselling crime author talks to Fanny Blake about his new Roy Grace novel, Need You Dead, his love of racing cars, and his real-life research with the police

- Fanny Blake

British author Peter lives with his wife Lara, splitting his time between Brighton and Notting Hill. The couple has three dogs, five alpacas, three emus, plus hens and Indian runner ducks. Peter has written 35 novels, including 13 in the international superselling DS Roy Grace series.

Right from the earliest I can remember, I wanted to do three things: race cars, write books, and make films.

Books were a big influence on me, and I was obsessed with cars from age two, when I fell out of my dad’s car.

I started entering writing competitions when I was about seven.

I won several prizes during my school years and then, at 19, wrote my first novel, which, luckily, didn’t get published. Neither did the next two!

After film school, I went to Toronto and got a job as a production assistant on a daily TV programme for children.

I ended up writing for them. That was my real starting point. Then I got involved in producing horror films – until I wrote and produced a comedy that did so badly, I decided to turn back to novels!

I wrote a spy thriller called Dead Letter Drop. That got me an agent and, to my amazement, a publisher.

Then I met the novelist Elizabeth Buchan, who said if I wanted to be successful, I should write about something I felt passionately about. I went away chastened.

When my first wife and I were burgled, a young detective came to the house. He saw my early books and offered to help me with research.

We became friends, and I got to know his colleagues and found them absolutely fascinating. Nobody sees more of human life in a 30-year career than a police officer.