Featured Interview With Alex Pearl
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was brought up in Gants Hill, a suburb of North East London, sitting on the fringes of Essex. I wasn't a particularly academic child. But from a young age I had the ability and imagination to write creatively and draw. So it wasn't surprising that I ended up going to art college and subsequently entered the advertising industry as a copywriter. I began writing novels almost by chance when I found myself waiting to be made redundant by a large agency. They took a whole year to do so. So in order to occupy my time creatively, I wrote a story for my kids. That story was entitled, 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds'. And in 2011 it was published. It went on to get shortlisted for the Book Viral Millennium Award, and was selected by the Indie Author Project for distribution to libraries across the US and Canada. I have subsequently written a dark thriller entitled 'The Chair Man', which was a Finalist in the 2021 Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This was followed by two comic murder mysteries set in the advertising world of the 1980s – 'A Brand to Die For' and 'One Man Down'. Other non-fiction titles include '100 Ways to Write a Book', 'Random Ramblings of a Short-sighted Writer', and three anthologies, 'The Clock Struck War', 'The Faintest of Tickles,' and 'Crime Songs'.
I now live in the leafy environs of North West London close to the Hampstead Heath extension. We have one pet, a very spoilt black cat called Zelda who my kids bought from a rescue centre as my birthday present 9 years ago.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was drawn to books at primary school when I was around 11 or 12. 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King was the first proper book I ever read. Needless to say, I was captivated.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I don't really have favourite authors as such. There are far too many brilliant authors to name. But I have a soft spot for humourous writers and in particular P. G. Wodehouse, who was a comic genius. And Dickens has to be one of the most significant writers in the English language after Shakespeare.
As for contemporary literature, Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro immediately spring to mind.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My most recent novel is the second in a series of comic murder mysteries set in the advertising world of 1984 in London. The book is entitled, 'One Man Down'. And this is the blurb:
The tale of a stumped policeman, a third man, and a well-placed shot.
It’s 1984. Princess Diana has just given birth to her second child. The legendary comic Tommy Cooper has died on stage (quite literally). And Angus Lovejoy and Brian Finkle are gloriously oblivious to it all as they strive to enthral the nation with their television commercials for the advertising agency Gordon Deedes Rutter. But all is not as rosy as it might seem in the frenetic world of Soho. Following a disastrous presentation to a manufacturer of diarrhoea tablets, Lovejoy and Finkle let off steam by playing cricket for an old school friend – but in doing so, stumble upon a nest of vipers involving a gay vicar, a small-time antique fraudster, a photographer, and blackmail. There can only be one outcome and it’s going to entail murder.
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