Author Interview: Alex Pearl

Alex Pearl's latest novel is A Brand to Die For, a comic murder mystery set in the pre-digital advertising world of 1983. I talked to Alex about his writing pathway and his views on book marketing.

LOARN: Tell me a bit about yourself.
ALEX: I live in NW London with my wife. Both our kids have flown the nest. I was brought up in the London suburbs. I wasn't particularly academic at school but I was good at art and English, so I went to art college and became an advertising copywriter. I started writing fiction in 2007 and my first book 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds' was published in 2011. My biggest influences were through school and later at work. I had a wonderful English teacher by the name of Clive Lawton. He was totally unconventional but a brilliant teacher. Then as a copywriter, I encountered brilliant people. One such person was my Creative Director in the mid-80s, Ken Mullen. He was an encouraging, supportive and nurturing boss, and he was great fun. He once created a press campaign for real fires for the Solid Fuel Advisory Service. This involved commissioning novelists to wax lyrical about their own real fires at home. Among the authors commissioned was the fabulous Beryl Bainbridge, and I was fortunate enough to sit next to her at the awards dinner. It was inspirational to chat with this lovely, down-to-earth lady who also happened to be one of the greatest living novelists in the country.

LOARN: How would you describe your writing? Are there particular themes that you like to explore?
ALEX: I’m a bit of a magpie in the sense that I steal stuff from all around me. I don’t think I have a writing style as such. This may be down to my background in advertising where I was expected to adjust my writing style and tone of voice to suit the audience I was addressing. The three novels I have written to date represent different genres: YA urban fantasy; political and psychological thriller; comic murder mystery. There are universal themes: trust; deception; friendship; love.

LOARN: Are you a planner or a pantser?
ALEX: I’m definitely a planner. I usually spend ages planning a detailed synopsis. When I set about writing The Chair Man, I spent almost two years reading around the subject and taking notes and working on a detailed synopsis. A Brand to Die For didn’t require as much research as I was writing about the advertising world I inhabited during the 80s.

LOARN: What was the first book you read?
ALEX: Stig of the Dump by Clive King, a wonderful book about a little boy who discovers a caveman or caveboy at the bottom of his grandparents’ garden.

LOARN: How much research do you do and what does it usually entail?
ALEX: It depends. When writing The Chair Man, which is a thriller set in 2005 following the terrorist attack on London, I needed to become au fait with the politics and the way in which terrorists used the internet. Conversely, my first book and most recent didn’t require any research to speak of.

LOARN: Do you ever base your characters on people you have encountered in real life?
ALEX: Yes, absolutely. Most of my characters are probably amalgams of people I have come across in real life. In my first book Sleeping with the Blackbirds, there is a character straight out of my childhood who was a disabled gardener. And in A Brand to Die For, the character Danny Deedes is based very closely on the late Ronnie Kirkwood who I had the pleasure of working for in 1980.

LOARN: Which was the last book you read that blew you away?
ALEX: I thoroughly enjoyed An Unmarriageable Man by Ashok Ferrey who is one of the 100 authors I interviewed for my book 100 Ways to Write a Book. I was delighted to learn that An Unmarriageable Man won the Gratiaen Prize in 2021.

LOARN: How do you market your books?
ALEX: I sometimes offer my books for free and use marketing services like the Fussy Librarian and Free Booksy, which have led to several thousand downloads. Gaining proper sales is far more difficult. I have achieved modest success with my recent novel, which is set in the world of advertising by messaging Linkedin contacts who are engaged in marketing. I use social media as well with modest results. But I prefer to write the next novel rather than spend time marketing.

LOARN: What are your interests aside from writing?
ALEX: I enjoy reading and listening to live music. I go to lunchtime classical recitals in London during the week. I also enjoy gardening, painting abstract compositions on glass, and cooking.

LOARN: Which authors do you particularly admire and why?
ALEX: Charles Dickens for his wonderfully colourful dialogue, unforgettable characters, and wit; George Orwell for the art of brevity; Graham Greene and John le Carre for their humanity and acute powers of observation; and Kurt Vonnegut for his chutzpah in daring to break every writing convention known to man and proving to the world that you can.

I reviewed A Brand to Die For in a previous post on this blog. A Brand to Die For