Featured Interview With Jack Messenger
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in West Germany (as it then was) and have lived in Canada and France. I now live in Nottingham, UK. Our greyhound Loulou is a beloved member of the family.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve always written ever since childhood and of course I have always read books. I was quite a solitary child, so for that reason I was thrown back onto my own resources. Books – and later on, films – became my natural home and my window on the world. Eventually, I started writing my own stories. English was my best subject at school by far. As an adult I have always worked in publishing, so you might say I have lived among books and writing all my life. I have a handful of Berlitz travel guides to my name (now all out of date), but for the last few years I have been writing fiction. Four American Tales was published a couple of years ago, and my novel Farewell Olympus is out now. Today, I write because I feel I have to, it is part of me and it is something I can do reasonably well. And I see it as a personal contribution towards helping explain ourselves to ourselves, of widening our sympathies and understanding.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Every book I’ve ever read has influenced me in some way. I think books are like experiences: we can’t recall everything that’s ever happened to us, but all of it made us what we are today. Authors I admire include Dickens, Vidal, Capote – there are hundreds. If you forced me to choose, my selection would vary from day to day. Today, it’s The Wine of Solitude by Irene Nemirovsky; War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy; Lincoln by Gore Vidal; O Pioneers by Willa Cather.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I’ve just published my novel Farewell Olympus. It’s set in Paris and tells the story of a young man named Howard, whose ambitions for the sweet life are thrown into chaos by the unexpected arrival of his half-brother Eugene, whom he finds waiting for him on his doorstep. Here’s the blurb:
‘When a patron of the arts named Serge loans him a luxurious penthouse apartment in central Paris, Howard can’t believe his luck. Now he can live cheaply while he translates articles for shortlived websites and doomed art journals nobody reads. And he’ll have more time to devote to his inscrutable French girlfriend, Delphine, a trainee lawyer.
Then, disaster strikes, in the shape of Eugene, Howard’s half-brother and personal nemesis, who sows chaos and discord wherever he goes. Abruptly, Howard’s uneventful life is plunged into mystery and farce. People are suddenly not what they seemed, and danger lurks in every restaurant. Serge himself is implicated in wrongdoing, while Giles, an Englishman abroad and seldom sober, knows more than he’s prepared to tell.
Can Howard and Eugene overcome their mutual antagonism long enough to survive? Should Howard forgive Eugene for being better looking? Will Eugene ever help him with the housework? Above all, will they ever agree about anything, particularly women?
Farewell Olympus is about love and rivalry, ambition and morality, Armageddon and the quest for the perfect croissant. Witty, intelligent and entertaining, it will make you feel you are too, even if you have no experience of volleyball.’
I’ve always like the idea of twins and opposites and how conflict can contain affection, even love, so that must have been some of my inspiration. Generally, however, like most writers, inspiration comes via hard work and unfolds day by day. I had the idea of someone turning up and ruining everything, and I quickly thought of Paris for some reason, so I wrote a few pages and that led me onwards and upwards to Olympus. There are elements of mystery and danger in the story that I had a lot of fun making ridiculous or farcical. It’s a book very close to my heart and, I believe, the best thing I have written so far, despite (or because) taking a six-month break part-way through due to ill-health. So, all in all, it must have taken me at least a year to write. It’s available now as a paperback and ebook.
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