Page 1 of 3 Interview with Paul
Kearney By Patrick
(2006-03-08)
For the benefit of those of us new to your work,
without giving too much away, give us a taste of the
story that is THE SEA-BEGGARS series.
Paul Kearney: Well, in many ways it's a very
traditional story - I deliberately took a hoary old
fantasy template to kick off the series, basically to
see if I could liven it up a little. So you have the
young hero of uncertain parentage, the magic sword, the
mysterious patron and so on. But I then kicked the whole
thing into left field, with the addition of ships and
the sea. The story changes gear and milieu completely -
especially in the second book, when things become a
little more epic, and much, much darker. The books are
essentially a narrative of one man's life and times,
with the proviso that he may not be a man at all, but
something entirely different, and his times are about to
transform beyond recognition.
What do you feel is your strength as a
writer/storyteller?
PK: I think I can handle
descriptions of certain things with a measure of
knowledge and honesty. When it comes to horses, and
mountains, and to a certain degree, soldiering, I have
had some useful experiences which I hope can make that
sort of thing seem more authentic when I'm typing it
down on a page. And also, I try to make characters as
psychologically realistic as possible. Men are not all
good, or all evil. They will compromise and agonize
before doing both the right and the wrong things, and I
hope - I hope! - That my stories reflect that.
What author makes you shake your head in
admiration?
PK: Many, many authors have me
weeping and wailing in abject envy at their skills.
Patrick O Brian is up at the top - for his sheer
humanity, his humor, his massive erudition. And also
because you quite simply want to read his books again
and again - which is the best compliment you can pay any
author. The man was a genius, and made it look
easy.
Are there any lesser known or new
writers you'd like to tell us more about?
PK: Rosemary Sutcliff was one of the
favorites of my adolescence. A historical novelist, she
wrote the finest treatment of the Arthurian legends I've
ever read, Sword at Sunset, as well as a whole slew of
other novels. When she writes about sub-Roman Britain,
you can smell the woodsmoke. She beats people like
Cornwell into a cocked hat, and yet has largely
disappeared from print. Such are the vagaries of
publishing.
Do you feel there is a difference between
European fantasy fans and their North American
counterparts?
PK: I'm not well informed enough to
comment, to be honest, not having met too many American
fantasy fans. But I do know that my first US agent told
me the Monarchies series was too sophisticated for a US
audience - a pile of claptrap, obviously. If there is a
difference (he volunteers, ill-informed, but jumping in
with both feet), then I think the UK audience may be
slightly more ready to give the quirkier ends of the
fantasy spectrum a hearing. Having said that, I think
both US and UK fans are far too obsessed with the
necessity for multi-volume doorstoppers. I've talked to
fantasy readers who choose their next book more or less
by the thickness of its spine.
What was the spark that generated the idea
which drove you to write THE SEA-BEGGARS in the first
place?
PK: The Monarchies series should
have been the Sea Beggars. I wanted to write a nautical
novel, purely about a long sea voyage, and that novel
eventually appeared as Hawkwood's Voyage. But to my
surprise, I felt I had to flesh out the world Hawkwood
was sailing from, and in doing so, I found its
shenanigans more interesting than the voyage which was
the point of the book in the first place. And also,
Corfe appeared, and shouldered Hawkwood and his ships
out of the limelight. The Monarchies became something
entirely different to what I had first envisaged, but
still I felt I wanted to write about the sea, and make
an authentic seafaring novel out of a fantasy setting.
So the Beggars series is really my second go at it.
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