East End Stories
PW Talks with Pip Granger
by Steve Anable -- Publishers Weekly, 12/20/2004
PW: As a child, during the 1950s, you rode with your father in a small airplane while he smuggled brandy, tobacco and books across the English Channel. Did being on the wrong side of the law give you added authority to create characters in similar circumstances?
Pip Granger: Yes, I think it did. Although I wasn't aware that we were smuggling until I was older.
PW: Did that awareness make you feel different from other children?
PG: I came from a criminal/bohemian background, but I didn't feel different when I was living in Soho, where such people were thick on the ground.
PW: Did your father ever go straight?
PG: Yes, if you call being in the mail-order astrology business straight.
PW: Why did you make Trouble in Paradise [click here to read the review] a prequel to your two earlier novels, Not All Tarts Are Apple and The Widow Ginger?
PG: I needed to find another "voice" because Rosie [the narrator of Not All Tarts and The Widow Ginger] is severely limited as a child in what she can do and witness. There are only so many keyholes she can keep her ear clamped to without being thought of as an awful sneak. I was interested in Madame Zelda [the narrator of Trouble in Paradise] as a character, and I thought an adult view of the people Rosie knew would be interesting for me—and hopefully for the reader, too.
PW: Would you be pleased to see Zelda or Rosie portrayed in television or films?
PG: In principle, yes, I would, but I suppose it would depend a lot on casting and so on as to how well the production would turn out. People seem to think the characters would make good television or film, but so far, no solid offers.
PW: Is avoiding extreme violence a conscious choice you've made in your fiction?
PG: I feel there are plenty of writers who do blood and guts far better than I could. As a reader, I am rather sated with sadistic serial killers and am trying to read more gentle crime fiction.
PW: Do working-class neighborhoods with strong bonds of family and friendship exist in London today?
PG: I think modern life has eradicated that in most big cities, although some Asian communities have managed to maintain that spirit.
PW: How did you earn a living between your childhood and becoming a novelist?
PG: When I left school, I'd do office work for a while, then travel. Later, I trained as a teacher and taught children with special needs in the East End of London, which I loved. Then, when my health failed and I was forced to retire, I wrote nonfiction. Eventually, I turned to novel writing.
PW: Zinnia Makepeace, the healer in Trouble in Paradise, is one of your most memorable characters. Aside from your father's astrology venture, have you had any other experience with healers or the occult?
PG: I set Trouble in Paradise in 1945 because I needed the action to be before the National Health Service was formed, because healers like Zinnia virtually disappeared when free health service was available, although they're coming back now. I am very interested in herbal medicine for my own health problems. When I was young, I had some precognitive experiences that were hard to explain in any rational sense. I am thrilled to say that I have had none in recent years—because the events I appeared to foresee were sad at best or tragic at worst.
