Featured Interview With Lizzie Mayer
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m John Mayer. I was an Advocate in the Supreme Courts of Scotland until I retired in 2013.
I’d written books before I started to write fiction. These were non-fiction and legal books for
use in universities and courts. I was a specialist in international child abduction and I’m glad
to say I’ve helped return many, many children to the places from where they were stolen. I
was also legal counsel to Greenpeace International. I even had responsibility for one of the
ships for a short time.
I’ve lived in very violent places and posh places and now live quietly on a tiny Greek island
where I go fishing from my boat, eat and drink with Greek friends (mostly rogues) and write
my series called The Parliament House Books.
I’m married to a wonderful wife who helps promote my books. We have one son (36) who
lives and works in New York City.
Growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, I saw shootings, stabbings and houses being burned out
while people slept in them. Violence was in the very air we breathed. But Glasgow produced
some great characters in those days. There was The Duke who controlled all the illegal
gambling in the East End of the City. Tucker Queen who was a ‘civilian’. Because of his
unusual delivery technique, he was often hired to send messages among gang members.
Tucker’s speciality was rats. Big black river rats he’d catch down at the dockside of the river
Clyde. He’d tie messages to their tails and, in the middle of the night, slip them through the
letter box of the addressee to be found in the morning. It was a very effective technique
which I guess just made people angrier. Big Bill Broonzy was so-called after the black
American blues singer – for two reasons. Firstly because he was a big guy and his name
really was William Brown; which we pronounced ‘Broon’. But secondly because he kept a
shop in Glasgow’s High Street called the ‘Soul Agent’. He was the sole importer (via his
brother who worked on ships going to and from America) of soul records; which he sold from
old shoe boxes he got from the store next door. I made something of a name for myself when
in 1967 I changed my name to John after John Lennon.
But growing up in a war zone wasn’t the whole story to where I lived. Contrary to where I
practised law in Parliament House, everybody in my old neighbourhood could be trusted.
Also, we knew how to have fun – something that doesn’t exist in Parliament House. For
instance, we ‘invented’ our own styles of dress. In the summer of ’66 we all wore white
cotton jackets; the kind worn by waiters and ice cream salesmen. I had a pair of red velvet
bellbottom trousers which I wore with my white jacket. It was a very successful combo for
attracting girls – I can tell you!
When the weather turned colder we took to wearing long knotted white scarves. The knots
were really bows and the idea was that your girlfriend could wear it along with you. Years
later, in New York City, I told Malcolm McLaren about all of that. He was Managing the Sex
Pistols at the time. He later sought out such gangs in New York and made the hit record ‘Skip
They Do The Double Dutch’ which was about street kids inventing their own pass-times
instead of gang fighting.
Oh, I mustn’t leave out a big influence on me. My High School Teacher of English Language
and Literature was a wonderful man called Danny Thomson. When inspectors would come to
check on standards, he would ask me to read aloud to the class. His nods of satisfaction when
I surprised the inspectors left a deep impression on me that I had a real way with words. He
left to become a script writer. We were amazed because such an occupation was so very
exotic.
Decades later, in my first year as an Advocate in Parliament House I thought of him after my
first appearance in the highest court in Scotland. I was leaving Parliament House when an old
Macer (the one who carries the golden Mace representing Her Majesty The Queen) came
running down a corridor after me. Running is absolutely forbidden in Parliament House but
there he was; running and calling my name. I stopped and waited for him. He said “Mr
Mayer. I’ve just come from the Judges’ Robing Rooms. They sent me to tell you that they
were very impressed with your old fashioned way of pleading and to say that they think you
have a real talent for persuasion.” I walked home reciting my legal argument to the judges
and imagined Danny Thomson walking beside me. I was very proud that day to be an
Advocate.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve always burned to write. Even in Elementary School I wrote stories which went on for many pages. My first teacher of English (Miss Ralph, bless her) told my mother ‘The boy is a born novelist.’ which made me very proud.
A little unusually I think,I have written not one but three Prequels to my first novel. I very much wanted to properly introduce my central character Mr Brogan McLane QC and thought the best way to do that was to write a few short stories: the first about the night of his birth, the second about his ‘coming of age and getting a blood brother’, and the third about his first case as an Advocate in Parliament House. Only then was I able to satisfy myself that my first novel – called The Trial – would have a proper grounding. All of The Parliament House Books are essentially about injustice.Parliament House in Edinburgh is the seat of Scotland’s Supreme Court and is 500 years old. There are many great stories attached to its history. I know all of these stories and I can tell you they are mostly about injustice rather than justice being done. I’ve always been fascinated by Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ and of course we often talk about living in Kafkaesque circumstances. I’ve found myself in such circumstances many times and from my first day in Parliament House I knew that I would, some day, fictionalise my cases into a series of novels. I’m now coming through on that promise to myself.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favourite two authors are Franz Kafka for his seminal work ‘The Trial’ which has inspired The Parliament House Books and J.D. Salinger for his truly great ‘The Catcher in the Rye’. The first time I read that book I was sitting under a tree in a very popular park in Edinburgh called The Meadows, as I read the last chapter.I screamed into the last page when I read it; frightening the life out of those around me. No book has ever affected me so powerfully.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The third novel in The Parliament House Books series is called The Bones. It’s about ‘a new bud on an old branch of medical science’. When McLane’s junkie clients are charged with breaking 35 of
their 5 week old child’s bones, McLane believes their pleas of innocence and after meeting an old flame who is a midwife, he thinks he begins to see a pattern. McLane tries to do a ‘2 for 1’ deal with the Crown Prosecutor. But predictably the jury convict on what seems like compelling
evidence. An old professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh hears of his plight and helps McLane through the medical science which, by presenting false evidence to courts for years, has created terrible injustices. Will McLane find that new bud on the old branch? Can the Advocate rely on desperate pleas of innocence from the young mother when he knows she is a heroin addict ? Could any child ever be safely returned to her care ?
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