Love London, Love this book.

Breaking news...

The Undercover team at Walker Books are going to personally hand deliver 2,000 limited edition copies of London based novel Long Reach direct to London's East End Streets.

We are truly going Undercover on 2nd March as we accompany Peter Cocks in a bid to get London reading for World Book Day. Peter Cocks will assume the identity of Long Reach’s Godfather-esque gangster Tommy Kelly and drive a white van (what else?) through London’s East End distributing 2,000 exclusive Limited London Edition copies.

The drop-offs will target teens and adults and include ten schools, fire stations, doctor’s surgeries, police stations and boxing clubs in Newham and Deptford; both key locations in the book, a drop off on the London Underground will also be included. The aim is to reach new readers and remind people that sometimes books can be the best way of discovering what goes on in your neighbourhood!

This isn’t the first time author and actor Peter Cocks has slipped into character – he starred as Tommy Kelly in our movie-style trailer - if you haven't already, do check it out here.  We'll be writing about the making of the trailer this week, too...

To promote the giveaway, Peter Cocks will be talking about Long Reach and World Book Day on several radio stations before or on World Book Day, including BBC Radio London, Derby, Merseyside, Magic 1161 and Sunrise Radio. Be sure to tune in this week. Here are a couple of pictures of Peter in the recording studio earlier today.


Long Reach has already had some fantastic reviews.
 
Praise for Long Reach

“…a writer with real potential to be the first big thing in YA crime writing”
Mountains of Instead

“Fast paced, gritty and a crackingly good read…this fantastic new title tackles a genre which is not widely aimed at the Young Adult market. An engaging, fast paced and thrilling read.” www.goodreads.com

“gripped throughout the book…I couldn't put the book down.” Overflowing Library

“This is a real Boys Own adventure story with a likeable hero in Eddie Savage, beautiful but possibly dangerous women with a thrilling storyline and murderous gangsters. A compelling and exciting read” Carole’s Book Corner

“Nothing  about Long Reach feels as though it's been cleaned up for its target  audience, and that's exactly what makes it feel so authentic and convincing...Tightly-plotted, edgy and smart” 
I Was a Teenage Book Geek

“The story has a similar feel to Martina Cole's adult books and doesn't feel dumbed down for its younger target audience…a fast paced thrilling read”

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Flip Q and A


Flip, by Martyn Bedford, is out in bookstores this week - the book trailer is coming soon, but check out this short interview with Martyn for the time being...

You can buy Flip  at WHSmith stores or at Amazon

1. How would you summarize your new book in one sentence?
Fourteen-year-old Alex wakes up to find his soul (spirit, essence, consciousness) has switched to another boy’s body and he has to find out why . . . and how to get back to his true self.

2. How long did it take you to write this book?
About 16 months.

3. How did you choose your characters’ names?
Most of them are modified versions of the names of footballers from the Leeds United team of the 1970s.

4. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
I’m not really up on the current crop of teenage actors. It would be tough role, given that he’d have to play the body of one boy and the mind of another, all wrapped up in one performance.

5. Did you always want to be a writer?
Kind of, although for a few years it got mixed up with wanting to be a journalist.

6. What was your very first story about? When did you write it?
It was about a guy who murdered his wife by stabbing her through the eye with a shard of ice. I was about 11. Nice kid.

7. What was your favourite book as a child?
The Wizard of Oz, by L.Frank Baum. And Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series.
 
8. If you could be any character from any book, who would you be?
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye.

9. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut – to be so funny, and inventive, about such a serious subject . . . and to pull it off. Brilliant.

10. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
Franz Kafka. Are you glad Max Brod didn’t carry out your dying wish to burn your manuscripts?

11. Where is your favourite place to write?
At the desk in the corner of my attic bedroom. I also quite like the Caffe Nero coffee shop in my home town, if I can find a discreet corner table. So, I like to write in corners, basically.

12. Do you have any writing rituals?
No. I sit down and I write. I have 13 years as a newspaper journalist to thank for that.

13. When do you write best, morning or night?
Morning. I’m useless by the end of the afternoon.

14. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
Time. And quiet. Oh, and a corner.

15. What is the best advice someone could give a writer?
Write. As much as you can as regularly as you can.

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Interview with Peter Cocks - Part 2

WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU DO?

I always do a lot of research, most specifically about places, so I can get the atmosphere and sense of place right.

For instance, I used to go to boxing matches in Bethnal Green in London's East End a few years ago, and also researched a very scary gym for a TV show in Canning Town. I met the guy who ran it, who didn't seem to believe my reasons for being there and thought I was doing some kind of undercover drugs exposure show there. I wasn't. I remember driving away and watching my rear view mirror all way home, he had made me so paranoid.

I also went to Croatia and worked as a victualler (cook/cocktail chef/shopper) on a yacht for 10 days, so I could get up close to some of the giant, floating palaces that the Russian oligarchs park down there. They really are amazing, overflowing with dodgy, drunk girls, thugs and many do have amazing art collections on board.

The 'celebrity wedding' in the book is based on one I attended, where mobiles were confiscated , as were cameras. Half of Girls Aloud (as they
were) were there, along with the other half of Sugababes. Dermot O'Leary, Davina McCall and Natalie and Liam Gallagher.

A couple of friends also went to the Jordan/Katie Price and Peter Andre wedding, so I got a few touches of the gossip from that. I have met both of them.  He is very sweet, but don't be fooled by her, she is smart as a whip!

TELL US ABOUT THE TRAILER? HOW MUCH INPUT DID YOU HAVE?

Because I have a background in writing and performing on TV, I have the necessary skills to storyboard, write, act and direct a trailer.

So, to answer, I was all over it like a rash! (Possibly more than the publisher and commercials producer would  have liked.)
 
However I have always believed that, as a writer, if you do have a strong sense of how things should be done visually, then I think you should hold on to that.
For instance, I LOVE the black and red graphics of the book cover designer by Patrick Insole who now designs adult books.
 
But I wanted the trailer to have a golden, autumnal feel, while still being gritty...so this is something I dictated from the storyboard.
 
Also, I appeared in it, as Tommy Kelly, partly because he looks like a cross between me and a man called Justin de Villeneuve, but partly because, on a limited budget, we spent the money on getting two contrasting girls to look just right.
 
I was very cheap to hire.

IS THERE GOING TO BE A SECOND BOOK?

Yes. There is a new love interest for Eddie, even though he can't get Sophie Kelly out of his mind.

There's also a big stitch-up.

If I tell you that my research for this book has taken me to the Midlands and then on a plane to Malaga in the South of Spain, then you may get some idea about what he's getting involved in...

They don't call it the Costa del Crime for nothing...!

CHECK OUT SOME OF PETER'S RESEARCH PHOTOS FOR THE SECOND EDDIE SAVAGE THRILLER. 

Bit of Bully
 
High Sierra
 
Spanish Glamour, Malaga
 
Mirlo Blanco

Sexy Policeman
 
Plaza de Toros

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Interview with Peter Cocks - Part 1

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE LONG REACH?

Long Reach as a book idea was inspired by the kind of books I wanted to read when I was growing up.

I was looking to fill the kind of gap that existed between Stig of the Dump which I was reading at ten, and Lord of the Rings which was my major obsession a few years later.

In the seventies there was no young adult market as such, so I would read my mum's books: Harold Robbins, Alastair MacLean, Jacqueline Suzanne's Valley of the Dolls ... books that appeared to me to be a bit sexy, with drug references and some violence.
 
I never really got into James Bond, but I liked Len Deighton's thrillers and the films where Michael Caine plays Deighton's hero, Harry Palmer. The books were a lot grittier and Palmer was cool without being smooth, and he sometimes slipped up and got himself into trouble. He also cooked for all his girlfriends which I always thought was a good touch. He'd tell you how to cook perfect scrambled eggs in the middle of the chapter, and get the girl.
 
I have put cooking and an interest in food in Eddie Savage's skill set. It's important to eat well and be able to feed yourself, and others.

I also thought Eddie, and his relationship with Sophie Kelly would appeal to female readers as much as male.

So ... I wanted to write a book that approached the reader, unpatronisingly, as an adult, but with a teenage protagonist.

As a background, I felt that East London and Essex had been so overworked as a background for criminal activity. I wanted to make my background more suburban. Anyone who knows anything will tell you that there are far more villains inside the south quarter of the M25 that any other area.

The escape routes out of the country are quicker.

I came from that area, and so I knew the geography well. I love the contrast between the harsh marshland, yards away from a glossy shopping centre like Bluewater. I like the look of the Dartford Bridge ... to me its as glamorous as an American setting, such as San Francisco.  I wanted to bring some of that dirty American feel to the book, inspired by shows like The Wire.

Long Reach is actually a stretch of the river under the Dartford Bridge. My grandad, a merchant seaman, ran boats up and down that stretch of river most of his life and I used to go with him. Recently, whenever I've driven over the Dartford Bridge and looked up the river, I've thought Long Reach would make a great book title.

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE ACTORS/ACTRESSES TO PLAY THE PART OF CHARACTERS IN A FILM OR TV, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Difficult.
 
When I started writing the characters, I had a younger Daniel Craig in  kind for Eddie.  Then it changed a bit towards Dominic Cooper.

I didn't want to be too specific about the way Eddie looks, so that the reader can invent their own picture of him. Also Eddie has to change himself slightly in order to disappear.

Sophie, in my mind, was always based on Holly Willoughby who I worked with on TV when she was younger.  Holly is very female and curvy, but has a very earthy sense of humour and can be quite a lad.
She's nearly a mum twice over now so a bit old for Sophie, but that would be the model.

When we DO cast it, I think we will be looking for unknowns. Two TV companies are reading Long Reach at present, so we live in hope...

In the meantime, if any one has any casting ideas, either existing actors, or friends who might fit the bill, then send in photos to marketing@walker.co.uk and we will publish them on the blog.

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