Val McDermid
Val McDermid
Val McDermidis a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels featuring Dr. Tony Hill...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 June 1955
condition news rage starting
The condition of rage is one in which I find myself starting my day - once I see the news headlines.
fear
Sometimes fear is used as a way to control.
ground men
On one hand, you've got 'decent' men, and on the other you've got neanderthal misogynist bawbags - and the middle ground is what's disappearing.
bit
It was a bit unimaginable when I began that I'd ever get to 25 books. But it was also unimaginable how much crime-writing would have changed.
If you don't make the best-seller list, if you don't get shortlisted for any prizes, it's goodbye.
ruth written
I said to Ruth Rendell, 'When you've written as many books as you have, it's easier.' She said, 'No dear, it gets harder'.
glad limited scottish sit
I don't think of myself as Scottish or lesbian when I sit down and write. I am glad I have broken out of that limited audience.
books fully ourselves
I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.
mitchell quite time
I did want to be Joni Mitchell for quite a long time.
bags
I am the despair of my accountant; I am the plastic bags of receipts.
became books central dirt education home kicking life luxury money moved opposite spare understood
We weren't dirt poor, but there was no spare money kicking around. While it was very much understood that the way to a better life was through education, books were a luxury we couldn't afford. But when I was six, we actually moved opposite the central library, and that became my home from home.
home intimate present relationships versions work
We all present versions of ourselves. The person you are at work is not the same person you are at home. The face we present in our most intimate relationships is not the face we present to the world.
academy became concerned happened less literary novel people point seems stepped stopped time
It seems to me that one of the things that happened with a lot of literary fiction in the 1980s and 1990s was that it became very concerned with the academy and less with how people live their lives. We got to a point where the crime novel stepped into the breach. It was also a time when the crime novel stopped being so metropolitan.
people reflects
I've never wanted to live in a ghetto or write in a ghetto. I want to write about a world that reflects the one most people live in. Gay people are just one aspect of that.