Brought up at a stables, it was inevitable that Harry would fall in love with the equestrian side of things, especially since he rode a donkey (in a side basket) before he could walk. Educated at various schools and colleges finally getting a doctorate in Ancient History with a specialisation in the Greek Culture under Roman rule. Blending both passions together, in 2006 he began writing (after many years trial and error) the tales featuring Ballista (an Anglo Saxon in the Third Century Common Era) during a time of great upheaval for Rome. Here we talk to him about life, donkeys and above all how to swear in latin... Falcata Times: Writing is said to be something that people are afflicted with rather than gifted and that it's something you have to do rather than want. What is you opinion of this statement and how true is it to you?
Harry Sidebottom: I have always felt a compulsion to write fiction. Over the years I have started all sorts of novels; some historical, a few fantasy, but mainly modern literary comic novels of a sub-Martin Amis sort. A few years back Tony Parsons wrote a great piece in the Spectator called something like “How to write a bestseller”. He argued that you can not cynically set out to write one. Bestsellers are books the author had to write. The early novels of people, I think he named among others Wilbur Smith, we tend to think of as just churning out the same formula were great books. Now the sales of the ghost written celebrity novels might cast some doubt on this, but I think overall his point probably stands. (Incidentally, I have no idea if he was right about Wilbur, because I have never read one).
FT: When did you realise that you wanted to be a writer?
HS: I have wanted to be a writer since I was a boy. I became an academic (apart from the fact that I love history) on the basic misunderstandings that they get long summer holidays and I thought I could produce a novel in a couple of months – how wrong I was on both counts.
FT: Its often said that if you can write a short story you can write anything. How true do you think this is and what have you written that either proves or disproves your POV?
HS: I had never come across the idea that if you could write a short story you could write anything. But now you have told it to me, I think it is probably true. I love short stories. But I have never tried to write one. I think they would be very tough to do well. You would have to do almost as much work inventing a plot, identifying a theme, and creating a setting and backstories for the characters as you would for a novel.
FT: If someone were to enter a bookshop, how would you persuade them to try your novel over someone else’s and how would you define it?
HS: I have only tried to persuade one person in a bookshop to buy my novel. It was last week in Sainsburys. The guy was looking at the paperback of Fire. I went up and said if he bought it, I would sign it. He bought it. He said he had never heard of the book, but he read a lot of historical fiction.
FT: How would you "sell" your book in 20 words or less?
HS: I think I am about to demonstrate why I never would have had a successful career in advertising. “A series of adventure thrillers with a detailed historical setting; high scholarship, low humour and hard action.”
FT: Who is a must have on your bookshelf and who's latest release will find you on the bookshops doorstep waiting for it to open?
HS: The only author I made sure I always bought on the day the hardback came out was Patrick O`Brian. Maybe not on the first day, but I always get the new William Boyd and Julian Barnes.
FT: When you sit down and write do you know how the story will end or do you just let the pen take you? ie do you develop character profiles and outlines for your novels before writing them or do you let your idea's develop as you write?
HS: Before starting I have a rough idea of how the plot runs and a clear idea of how it ends. But it often changes as the writing goes on. Half way through the book I thought of a new element to add to the ending of King, which I think makes it more shocking/gives it more emotional impact.
FT: What do you do to relax and what have you read recently?
HS: Mainly normal stuff to relax: take my sons swimming, go for a meal out with my wife, drink lager and talk nonsense with my friends, watch DVDs (I have spent a lot of the last few months watching all five series of The Wire), and, yes, read. I usually have two books on the go; one `serious` (a classical author or something by a modern historian) and a novel. At the moment I am reading Euripides (well, rereading some of the plays) and Twenty One Stories by Graham Greene.
FT: What's your guiltiest pleasure that few know about?
HS: Obviously I am not going to tell you any seriously guilty pleasures. One I usually keep quiet is collecting toy soldiers. I have just never grown out of it. It fits my wife`s general view that men never grow up.
FT: Lots of writers tend to have pets (mainly cats.) What do you have and what are their key traits (and do they appear in your novel in certain character attributes?)
HS: I had two greyhounds when I was a child. Showing the inventive imagination which marked me out as a future novelist, I called the white one `Whitey` and the black one `Blackie`. I also had a pony. I keep trying to remember how I felt about him when writing Ballista`s feelings for Pale Horse.
FT: Which character within the book is the most fun to write and why?
HS: Hard call to say which character was the most fun to write in King. I enjoyed doing Turpio. It was fun to take a relatively minor character from Fire and round him out and bring him more centre stage. I like his reserve, and the fact that although he had next to no formal education, he is into `modern` poetry. But I also enjoyed the odious Quietus.
FT: How similar to your principle protagonist(s) are you?
HS: One of my best friends read Fire and said that Ballista was me except Ballista could look after himself. Certainly I have given Ballista some of me. As an example, I used to get really pumped up before playing rugby (okay, really scared), but was fine after the first tackle. I transferred this to Ballista about battles. But to some extent all the characters are me – after all I invented them.
FT: What hobbies do you have and how do they influence your work?
HS: With two full time jobs and two small sons, I don’t really have time for hobbies. Maybe the rugby I used to play, as above, or drinking with mates for the bar scenes.
FT: Where do you get your idea's from?
HS: It is very hard to say where the ideas come from. This is not some `oh, the mysteries of the creative type` bollocks. It is just true. I think if you are going to write fiction that is any good, you have to put all yourself into it; everything you have ever read, seen, heard, done. Nowadays when I am doing the other job as a historian I keep finding things – an anecdote or a setting – which I think will be great for a future novel and I file it away.
FT: Do you ever encounter writers block and if so how do you overcome it?
HS: I am lucky, I have never had writer`s block. Philip Pullmann said he did not think it existed – some days its hard to go to work. On days when it is not going well, I just keep chipping away. Sometimes I have only managed a couple of hundred words in the morning, but then in the afternoon it takes off and you are flying.
FT: Certain authors are renowned for writing at what many would call uncivilised times? When do you do write and how do the others in your household feel about it?
HS: I am really quite disciplined about writing. I drop my eldest off at school and am at my desk by about 9, then I work until about 5. I always take at least one break to go out and drink coffee (although lately I keep taking a notepad with me).
FT: Sometimes pieces of music seem to madly influence certain scenes within novels, do you have a soundtrack for your tale or is it a case of writing in silence with perhaps the odd musical break in-between scenes?
HS: I need quiet to write. Very occasionally I put on some mood music. I remember writing the scene where Ballista arrives at Arete. There is some `Desert` music in the background, so I played a Tinariwen CD while I was writing. The music I listen to creeps in in other ways. Bathshiba got her name from a Richard Thompson song. (God, this makes me sound like some old hippy!).
FT: What misconceptions, if any, did you have about the writing and publishing field when you were first getting started?
HS: I was so ignorant about publishing, I did not have any preconceptions at all.
FT: If music be the food of love, what do you think writing is and explain your answer?
HS: Now this is a hard question. For me writing is just something I have to do. Maybe reading fulfils some essential human things; curiosity, the need for escapism, the desire for stories.
FT: What can you tell us about the next novel?
HS: In King of Kings Ballista and his familia are still in the east. It opens with full-on action, then builds via some nasty intrigues to (what I hope is) a shattering climax. In the novel a new dimension to Ballista is opened up. For the first time we see him in a civilian context, privately with his wife, publicly persecuting Christians in Ephesus. The latter raises the essential theme of the book; how should a decent but rather irreligious man act in the face of religious extremism – on one side the inhuman pagan imperial orders to persecute and on the other the self-martyring fanaticism of some early Christians.
FT: What are the last five internet sites that you've visited?
HS: Really dull, I am afraid: OLIS (the Oxford University Library catalogue), the university contacts page to find some email addresses, Amazon, Abe Books, and a site about renting holiday homes. (I am tempted to lie here, just to sound more interesting!).
FT: Did you ever take any writing classes or specific instruction to learn the craft of writing a novel?
HS: I have never taken a creative writing course.
FT: How did you get past the initial barriers of criticism and rejection?
HS: I have been phenomenally lucky, in that there really was no early rejection. The Warrior of Rome series came about like this. I told the editor of my history book (Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction) I wanted to try to get some fiction published. He recommended three literary agents. I met Jim Gill and we got on straight away. Jim told me to take eight weeks that summer off from history research and write as much fiction as I could. I took six weeks and wrote the first three chapters of Fire, a detailed synopsis of the rest of the novel, and a rough outline of King and Lion. I sent it to Jim. He said he liked it. Then nothing for about three months. I had reached the stage of thinking `oh well, at least when I am old sitting by the fire I will not look back and think if only I had tried to be a novelist, I have, it hasn’t worked, now move on.` Then out of the blue - it was a Thursday evening I had just come back from teaching – Jim rang and said Penguin wanted to buy all three. I finished Fire. It was published, went straight in the top twenty, stayed there for two and a half months, and peaked at number four. And life changed.
FT: What are the best and worst aspects of writing for a living, in your opinion?
HS: The best aspects of writing for a living are that you get paid for doing something you love and sometimes people tell you that they like your stuff. The worst are that you can get rather lonely, obsessed and self-doubtin
g. (Although if you don’t get the latter, you are going to be a complacent, crap writer).FT: People have commented that your characters swear like troopers, how do you ensure that its accurate for the time?
HS: At the start I was not sure what to do about the swearing. Obviously it might put off some straight-laced readers. But as I wanted to write as historically accurately as possible (and there is loads of evidence that the Romans swore like troopers) it had to go in. I think two other factors also came into play; (1) it can be very funny, (2) I was brought up in racing stables, where no one can get through a sentence without swearing. For the accuracy of my obscenities I turn to J.N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (1982). There is a direct Latin and/or Greek equivalent for every obscenity in the novels. With one exception. `Bloody`: I wanted a mild swearword for the northerner Ballista to use, and have not yet found one that was quite right.
