His novels have been adapted into a four-part drama for BBC1 – here the author reveals why his thrillers are the real deal.
By Mark Lawson
Tuesday 11 July 2017
The problem with novelists, says Mark Billingham, is that “as a rule, they tend not to play well with others. You spend a year on your own writing a book. So it’s difficult suddenly to be thrown in a room with loads of other people.”
But the bestselling crime writer is, in three senses, coming out to play at the moment. He spent time on the set and in the editing suite of In the Dark, a four-part adaptation of two of his novels featuring DS Helen Weeks, a young detective who investigates a child murder while heavily pregnant. The day after we meet at his north London home, he’s off to Liverpool to start a promotional tour for Love like Blood, his 14th novel featuring London homicide detective DI Tom Thorne, and, while there, he has scheduled the first rehearsal for a summer tour with his rock band, the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.
RECOAT, a Scottish arts organisation that specialises in contemporary urban art, will celebrate a decade of exhibitions, mural projects, and education programmes with an exhibition – This Will Ruin Everything – at The Lighthouse in Glasgow.
Running from July 14 to 30, This Will Ruin Everything features forty Scottish and international artists and designers exhibiting architecture, digital art and painting. The show will also feature the Lighthouse’s first mural.
Exhibiting practitioners include Kidacne, Sheone, Matt. W. Moore, Maya Wild, Will Barras, Kirsty Whiten, Mark Lyken, Elph, Fraser Gray and Susie Wright.
JUST one, urgent, question surrounding Donald Trump’s rumoured flying visit to Scotland: Is there enough time to build a great big beautiful wall to keep him out?
And there’s an interesting suggestion on the Stop Trump Coalition Facebook page, relating to his possible trip to the UK. “Maybe we could help some refugees sneak into America while he’s out”, it says.
Inconvenient
Life on the road isn’t always as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be.
Scots alt. blues troubadour Dave Arcari, who plays Glasgow Calling, at McChuill’s, on July 28, and Milngavie’s Mugstock Festival on July 30, has been recalling an incident from the time he played a show with Steve Earle.
Each musician had his own dressing-room but what Dave didn’t realise was that the shared toilet could be accessed from each room. Dave was engaged in using the facilities prior to the show when the other door opened and in walked Steve – who, if he was taken aback, hid it well.
