Len Deighton – In Spy Ring Writer

As 2014 draws to a close, Kim Vertue talks to Len Deighton about his long and successful writing career and, amongst other things, his 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War and its screenings and stagings this year to mark the centenary of the First World War. 

The long career of Len Deighton holds some surprises: he was a pioneering food columnist and is a respected chef, he enjoyed success with an earlier career as a sought-after illustrator and graphic designer, he is an accomplished modern historian and researcher, a film-producer, dramatist and novelist… probably most widely known for his debut novel, The Ipcress File, made into the iconic film starring Michael Caine as British spy, Harry Palmer – the 'working class James Bond’.

Len Deighton photograph courtesy of Jonathan Clowes

Len Deighton was born in a London workhouse in 1928.  His mother was a cook and his father a chauffeur.  As Len grew up, his father would let him play truant from school so long as he read - which he did, voraciously, at Marylebone public library, developing passions for art and history.

He joined RAF special operations as a photographer, an experience that would later provide primary research for some of his books. After the war he followed one of his passions and studied at the Royal College of Art.  He would work as a chef to supplement his income and this confirmed his lifelong interest in good food.  When he graduated he had a successful career as a graphic artist, designed posters for the London underground and book covers which included the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.

First UK edition of Kerouac's On The Road,
with cover art by Len Deighton

Here his love of literature and visual art went hand-in-hand. Has this partnership remained in his creative approach? Does art inspire aspects of his writing, and does he continue to sketch as well as write?  

“Not as much as I would like,” he admits, “Drawing is so difficult and so rewarding, but I don't set aside time for it. I can never find enough time in any day to do all the things I enjoy. But yes, I can't write a scene without having it visually in my mind, even if that vision is of my own creation. I studied art full-time for six years and art, rather than literature, is the basis of all my outlook.”

The Ipcress File was his first novel, published in 1962 and an instant best seller. The film of the book made a star of Michael Caine and is still classic cold war 1960s London chic (if such a genre exists). He helped persuade the director to allow Michael Caine to wear glasses on screen which created a new brand of masculine cool. He showed Michael Caine how to make an omelette for the scene in the film when Harry Palmer first has a chance to woo his female colleague. The conversation between Harry Palmer and his boss while he is shopping in the supermarket is a great insight into how food was regarded in post war Britain and Harry Palmer as a new working class ‘foodie’ hero must have helped pave the way for Heston Blumenthal!

The Ipcress File was followed by Horse Under Water (the only one of the quartet to not be adapted for cinema), Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain - the film version starring Michael Caine was directed by Ken Russell... apparently he really did have Michael Caine leaping onto an iceberg in that  iconic fur hat.

Michael Caine stars in the Harry Palmer cinematic trilogy

As well as the ‘Harry Palmer’ novels, Len Deighton has written two Bernard Samson trilogies; Game Set and Match and Hook Line and Sinker - mainly set in the London and Berlin of the 1980s - which were also bestsellers and adapted into a TV series. When a writer invents convincing, fully-fleshed-out characters, they often contain parts of that writer’s personality, or if they did not, perhaps parts of their personality stays with their creator. Is there much of Len Deighton in the characters of ‘Harry Palmer’ and ‘Bernard Samson’?

This is something he has considered before, “I say no: but my wife, my sons and my friends say, ‘yes’.”

Len Deighton giving Michael Caine some cooking tips
on the set during the filming of The Ipcress File

The film of The Ipcress File launched Michael Caine as a new style of spy hero onto our screens and celebrated sixties London. The spy who had remained nameless in the books became 'Harry Palmer' - a 'new man' - working class with no airs and graces, but also intelligent and cultured, confident enough in his good looks to make a statement with his spectacles, a bon vivant who could win the hearts of women with his sensitivity and prowess in the kitchen. Len Deighton now lives far away, in both time and place, from that London and when he visits from his home in sunny Southern California he admits, “I find England almost unrecognisable from the days when I lived in Soho. Perhaps I have lived abroad too long.”

A theme of communication and the lack of it pervades particularly the Samson books, and it is the essential romance of Bernard that he perseveres despite the difficulties he faces.  Do such characters ever ‘talk back’, asking for a reprieve from the conflicts Deighton decides to fling at them?

“This leads to an ever-present question for all writers. Do we control the characters or do they control us? My feeling is that the characters cannot be made to do something we need for the story but that no reader will believe. At the same time, they must act within the needs of the plot and overall structure. Characters must surprise the reader with their behaviour but not test the reader's credulity. It's what the economists call the 'snake in a tunnel' - they wriggle but they can't break away.

“I will admit that writing of, thinking of, and living with the same characters day and night for nine books - or ten books counting Winter - was undeniably disturbing at times. That's why I wrote other books, with other locales, between some of the Bernard Samson books. I was afraid I might go nuts.”

Bernard’s descriptions of Berlin and his childhood there read like a love letter to the place – how important are the locales and personal experience of them to Deighton’s stories and writing process?

“I like Berlin and Berliners too. The city and its history is deeply embedded into Bernard's mind and he takes Berlin with him wherever he goes. All through the Samson books I had to describe things and places not as I saw them, but as he did.”

Game, Set and Match

In addition to the many spy novels Len Deighton has written he has crafted unique histories of the Second World War – including Fighter and Bomber. His work was highly acclaimed by historian A J P Taylor.  Bomber was dramatised for BBC Radio in 1995 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World war. The adaptation was narrated by Tom Baker and the action reported as if in ‘real time’ over one weekend within Radio 4’s schedule. It was repeated more recently in 2011 on Radio 4 Extra and it is available as an adapted audiobook on CD.

With his books becoming best-sellers, garnering critical credibility and being validated by historians, is there a single piece of writing that he sees as his greatest achievement, one that he is particularly proud of or holds any particular personal meaning?

This is a challenging question for him, “Dissatisfaction is the springboard that makes a writer end one book and begin another vowing that it will be better. Goodbye Mickey Mouse, about American fighter pilots in World War Two is one of the few books that came out exactly the way I envisaged and planned."

One of Len Deighton's personal favourites

"As for pride - I see it as a sin, but when I completed the last book of the Bernard Samson series it represented well over a decade of work and I was pleased and satisfied to have completed the massive task I had set myself back when I started Berlin Game.

Dissatisfaction can drive a writer… Does Deighton have any other advice to writers starting out?

“Every book is different and every writer is different. My advice to anyone starting to write fiction books is to be ready to devote a great deal of time to it. Write every day, even if its notes and research. I have never completed a book in less than a year and most took longer than that. If you are waking up at four o'clock in the morning wondering if it’s all going wrong, it's probably all going well.

“I have found meetings and dinner party chat drastically interrupts my writing progress, so I have over the years become a recluse - or so I am told. For a fiction book: get the research done beforehand - especially listen to the speech patterns of the sort of people you plan to write about - and don't stop to go off on a research trip. Skip forward and keep writing. John Masters taught me this and I have found it a valuable rule.”

Len Deighton also wrote the screenplay for Oh! What a Lovely War, which uses popular songs of the time interspersed with facts about the First World War to movingly portray the plight of the ‘poor bloody infantry’ at the hands of the upper classes.  The film was shot on Brighton pier, involved an impressive cast including Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, John Gieguld, Maggie Smith and Vanessa Redgrave… and was directed by the late Richard Attenborough.  In a recent interview for Radio Times, Sir David Attenborough said this was his favourite film of those his brother Richard directed. “I think probably the most imaginative film he made as a director was Oh! What a Lovely War.  Shadowlands was a very powerful film, but Oh! What a Lovely War was out there on its own – no cinema film that I know of had anything like the bravura and the energy and the invention as he put into that.”

Oh! what a Lovely War was shown earlier this year by the BBC as part of the centenary events for the First World War and Joan Littlewood’s landmark production also returned to the stage in the spring. Instead of ‘celebrating’ war, the plight of the men who had to follow orders is movingly portrayed. Does Len Deighton have faith in human nature to learn from the carnage of the First World War and the atrocities of the Second?  His established role as historian seems very important in this process.

“My father fought in the First World War trenches and was wounded and gassed to an extent that the War Office told his mother was 'severe'. He recovered - or so the Pensions Dept told him - and worked hard all his life… and I never heard him complain. The other day on TV, I watched a history professor telling us that the sacrifice of a million lives in World War One was worthwhile! I was appalled. Appalled too that he didn't know that the total casualties were far, far higher."

Sing along... Oh! What a lovely War

“I added an initial sequence to my Oh! What a Lovely War screenplay to show how the war began. I researched this energetically and decided that World War One could have been - and should have been - avoided. I later asked both A J P Taylor and Bertrand Russell their opinion. They both told me that they believed that the war could have been avoided. Of course few, if any, of the politicians and generals who started it thought it would be more than a sharp engagement over by Christmas.

“It was the writer and critic Julian Symons who told me that I was the only person he knew who loved machines - he didn't say ‘better than people’ and I appreciate that - and suggested that I should write a book about this feeling. 'Machines fighting a war without humans?' I said frivolously and, along with other influences, his remark prompted Bomber.

“I had flown in Lancaster bombers and Mosquito fighters when I was an RAF photographer so I had some background. In Central London in 1940-41 I was under German bombing every night for three months, followed by V1 missiles and V2 rockets. I knew what the air war was like. Perhaps Bomber was not the right title, because much of the story is devoted to the Germans - fighter pilots, radar operators and civilians - I spent months in Germany getting all those details right.”

Len Deighton can count Lemmy amongst his fans, who has said that the Motorhead track, Bomber, was inspired by reading the book! Bomber was later followed by Fighter…

First edition cover of Bomber,
featuring detail from a painting by Turner

“When I wrote Fighter, one critic was outraged that I had included the words of the Germans we were fighting. That was the cloud-cuckoo land so many were still living in. I am not a pacifist by any means but killing people you have never met is not something to be done thoughtlessly.”

The ‘cold war’ spy thriller, An Expensive Place to Die, takes its title from an Oscar Wilde quote. After being involved with writing for the screen for Oh! What a Lovely War and overseeing the screen adaptations of many more of his novels, does this mean that Deighton still admires Wilde as a dramatist?  

“Yes, Wilde's writing endures. When very young, I learnt the Reading Goal poem by heart. Wilde's skill as a dramatist is masterful. Writing for the stage is entirely different to writing for the screen or writing fiction books. I once said that a screenplay writer is to a novelist what a taxidermist is to a lion tamer. Perhaps I was hasty in that judgement but it was prompted by the fact that few screenplays are the work of one writer - whereas many, stage plays are - and so screenplays are usually a compromise. For this reason, I made sure that I was the sole producer of the Oh! What a Lovely War movie, and made sure it was shot exactly to conform to my screenplay.”

Over such a prolonged and consistent career, how has the approach to writing and his writing routine changed? How do Deighton’s approaches to fiction and non-fiction differ?

“I have always planned - and sometimes abandoned - my outlines, and extended drafts, for books. My non-fiction works, such as, Fighter, Blitzkrieg, Blood Tears and Folly - and also the historical fiction works Bomber and Winter - required travel and talking to participants. Fiction cannot be done to such a specific schedule and its looser plan requires discipline enough to toss away days of work when writing has gone in the wrong direction."

Many writers learn their craft by reading… are there any ‘stand-out’ favourites in terms of works or authors?

“Yes…” he considers, “I admire and enjoy the works of many authors and I frequently turn again to books I have enjoyed. I hesitate to name one from so many. Writing a book of fiction is a very demanding task and I see most fiction books in terms of the way the elements have been tackled - plot structure and the way it interacts with pushing the narrative along, dialogue and characterisation. Additionally, I read many non-fiction books.”

The many non-fiction books penned by Len Deighton include three influential cook books. He was home-taught the basic techniques by his mother, who was a professional cook, and then learnt ‘on the job’ after being given a chance in the kitchens for the Festival of Britain where he had started as a cleaner… In 1965 his book Où Est le Garlic (recently revised and re-published as Len Deighton’s French Cooking for Men) attracted favourable attention when it was published to coincide with the rising sales of his spy novels. The following year, Len Deighton’s Action Cookbook showcased the graphic ‘cookstrips’ he did for the Observer in the days before food journalism had really been invented. 

These infographic style recipe recaps, are great for quick reference and are to be re-launched in the Observer Food Monthly through 2015, starting in January. He also wrote a book to guide chefs and home cooks through and his basic course in French cookery and this also used his signature ‘cookstrips’ - well illustrated infographics that contain sound sources of knowledge to the novice and more experienced cook alike. The really observant may spot some of these pinned to the wall in Harry Palmer’s kitchen in the film version of The Ipcress File - still more informative than the current plethora of ‘eye candy’ recipe books launched every Christmas!

cook-strip!

Deighton’s cook books are entertaining and clear, a great way to demystify cooking… does he have a favourite dish to cook or enjoy?

“Very lightly cooked new-laid eggs, in any shape or form, make a wonderful dish and, since I am choosy about unsalted butter and we make our own wholemeal bread, I am simple in my tastes. But I admire and appreciate skilled cooking especially French dishes.

What other chefs or food writers would he recommend?

“I admire the chefs who have devoted their working lives to cooking and who have worked in the great restaurants. The books and words of such men as Pierre Koffmann, Anton Mosimann, the Roux brothers, Anton Edelmann, Paul Bocuse, the Troisgros brothers... and others of the same dedication… are inspiring. To understand what I most believe, read, the autobiography of Jaques Pepin - from whom I was privileged to have some lessons. It's a gripping book.”

Finally, is there a particular ingredient or gadget that is essential in the Deighton kitchen?

“I have a kitchen crammed with gadgets few of which (apart from the dishwasher) are much used. Two or three high quality kitchen knives are all one needs. I prefer old- fashioned carbon knives rather than stainless steel ones. Oh yes, I almost forgot - my electric knife sharpener - Chef's Choice 3-blade position model - is an essential for me.”

Len, Lights, Action!

As you can see Len Deighton is pretty cool - an inspiration on how to avoid being pigeonholed, to follow what interests you or makes you passionate, and to have a perennial, compassionate regard for humanity which is at the heart of any good writer.

Thank you, Mr Len Deighton!

- Len Deighton was talking with Kim Vertue

There is a full bibliography and plenty more info at the Deighton Dossier - a comprehensive fan-run website

Oh! What a Lovely War is discussed in this episode of Radio 3’s Night Waves (BBC iPlayer)

Lots of Len Deighton books available from amazon.co.uk...

Beowulf versus Grendel - the Rematch!

With the recent publication of J R R Tolkien's 'lost' translation of the saga and a major exhibition at the British Museum dedicated to Viking life and legend, Remy Dean looks back over the life and times of Beowulf - our first 'novel' - and asks, "Was Grendel a 'green' warrior, wrongly vilified?"

Beowulf is a true classic, the most important piece of Olde English literature to survive from the Anglo-Saxon period. The story is set during a much earlier era, the action taking place in fifth century Scandinavia against a backdrop of political intrigue, feuding, feasting and fighting amongst men and monsters.

The original author and precise date(s) of origin remain open to conjecture, though it was certainly set down, in written form, in pre-Saxon Britain, though possibly as a series of separate stories later compiled around the central theme and adapted to take in the influence of Christianity. It is generally thought that many elements of the story had been passed down from the scalds, bards of the Norse, as there are themes and conventions in common with the great Viking sagas such as those of the hero Sigurd.

The surviving version of story as we know it, is thought to date back to the early eighth century, later being recorded as one manuscript toward the end of the tenth century, almost certainly by a monk or religious scribe of some kind. The original poems, from which the story is derived, could date back as far as the fifth and sixth centuries, contemporary with when the action is set. The only surviving manuscript is 1,000 years old and only narrowly escaped being destroyed by fire in 1731, when held at the Cotton Library. It is now preserved and displayed at the British Library, who have also made an e-version available on-line.

A page from the one and only Beowulf 

Beowulf is not only the oldest story set down in English, but also in the whole group of Germanic stemmed languages and is important as a major landmark in the development of literature, yet striking in its apparent modernity - the story is a quintessential heroic epic, jam-packed with action and adventure. Although tinged by the Christianity of the time when it was set down with quill and ink, Beowulf is a tale of heathen warriors, old gods and ancient monsters. The central hero is the Beowulf of the title. The story joins him as a young aspiring warrior and follows his life from that point on as he triumphs over seemingly insurmountable odds that have repeatedly defeated and slain lesser men.

There are three pivotal confrontations, or trials, that punctuate our hero’s life. First, Beowulf takes on the formidable Grendel, a creature of natural and supernatural power that has been terrorising the court of King Hrothgar. After defeating Grendel in combat, Beowulf is then faced with the onslaught of the beast’s mother, whom he also defeats after a metaphysical journey into the earth to seek her subterranean lair. The third and final confrontation occurs some fifty years later when a mighty and fierce dragon, a firedrake from the north, becomes Beowulf’s nemesis.

Beowulf was not written by a single author, it stems from the age of the storyteller, where a tale would be told and re-told, adapted to the audience, elaborated upon and passed down to the next generation as oral tradition. Each storyteller would add their own personality, experiences and style, emphasis may shift according to political climate and contemporary events. Beowulf is a tale filled with the drama and poetic artistry gleaned from generations of performers who have spoken and sung its verses. It is the earliest, long story to make the transition from this bardic tradition of story-telling and story-singing into the written form. It could be considered the earliest example of the novel.

Beowulf is a well-known work, though it has not, until recently, been widely read and had remained the preserve of scholars. Some small sections and verses from Beowulf were translated into 'modern' English in the early 1800s, but the very first ‘accessible’ translation of the full text, from the Olde English, was into Danish in 1820. This was followed, some years later in 1895, by a translation into contemporary English by William Morris. Probably the person most responsible for the poem coming to the attention of a wider audience was Professor J R R Tolkien who drew heavily from it for his Lord Of The Rings sagas and presented a lecture to the British Academy in 1936 titled, Beowulf: The Monsters and The Critics. He had also written his own translation of the saga in 1926, though this remained unpublished… until now.

The Beowulf story itself remained hard to get to grips with until an excellent translation by Michael Alexander was broadcast by the BBC and published in the Penguin Classics series in 1973, to be reprinted almost every year for the following decade. This version goes out of its way to convey the ‘barbaric splendour’ and ‘sustained energy’ of the poem and is accompanied by an extensive introductory essay that points out that a textual translation can never by completely faithful. Old English ‘scopas’, and the storytellers of yet older traditions, would certainly have spoken the piece, or even recited it in song to the sound of harp. Alexander concludes his intro by saying, ‘While I cannot expect readers to sing, I hope they will read the verse aloud. Beowulf was not written to be readable but to be listened to’.

Then here is one scholarly editor who may well approve of the treatment the story received at the hands of eighties rock giants 'Marillion' in their monumental track, Grendel. The song is a 17 minute rock opera that tells the story of Grendel from the monster’s point of view, where he is the ‘good’ primeval force of nature and the Viking ‘heroes’ are the villains, with their lack of respect for the land and for their fellow humans, whom they slay by the hundreds in ‘noble battles’.

Fish fronting 'Marillion', circa 1983,
takes on the mantle of Grendel

Though the song is greatly respected by the fans, Fish, the lyricist responsible for the Grendel song, does not feel that it deserves the high esteem in which it is held, “It’s a song that has gathered a lot of weight through the years that I don’t think is really justified,” admits Fish, “The whole Grendel thing came about because I was given huge slab of music and we needed lyrics for it. I had to come up with a conceptual piece that was gonna tie it together, that was grand enough to lay over the top. At the time I had read a book, it was just called Grendel, by John Gardner - I was given it when I first joined 'Marillion'…

“Gardner completely re-wrote the whole thing from the monster’s perspective,” Fish explained, “The humans were actually the more evil of the two. Grendel had been on the planet from ages before - it had a lot of ecological roots in it - and I took that from his book. What can I say - it was a very early piece of writing and it stands on its own, but, y’know, it’s not what I’d have carved on my tombstone! To me it’s a nice wee slice of nostalgia.”

( Grendel is currently available on the compilation album B'Sides Themselves... you can watch a wonderfully theatrical live performance of Grendel from 1983 - on YouTube - and you can read a longer Scrawl interview with Fish here... )

The Grendel section of the story seems to be the piece that most effectively captures the imagination of the modern creative and was also the plot focus for the film, The 13th Warrior, adapted by Michael Crichton from his own novel, Eaters of the Dead. Though Crichton has said that the plot is based on the journals of Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, played by Antonio Banderas in the film, it is undeniably an adaptation of the Grendel story thread - and a pretty faithful and effective one at that.

Ibn Fadlan was a Moslem emissary who travelled with a group of Vikings through the Europe of 922 and who was, “astonished by their lustful aggression and apathy towards death”. In his journals, according to Crichton, the leader of the warrior band is named ‘Buliwyf' - which does sound pretty similar to ‘Beowulf’. What Crichton has done, is expertly fuse the historic facts of one source with the poetic power and drama of another, thus creating the most accessible portrayal of the Grendel arc so far, as well as one of the most intelligent action movies of 1999.

There are some interesting takes on major scenes from Beowulf, for example, the strange ribbons of fire that look like serpents across the land are interpreted as vast hordes of horsemen bearing torches and riding in columns. Grendel himself is represented as one particularly fierce warlord among a vicious tribe who don paint and animal pelts before a raid. Grendel’s ‘mother’ is their pagan priestess and the supernatural magic is the stealth and tactics they employ, and perhaps the effects of certain ‘herbal’ substances - both on the raiders and their victims.

Ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) has yet to earn the respect
of Buliwyf (Vladimir Kulich) in The 13th Warrior

One interesting piece of re-casting is the narrator being of Arabic origin, rather than a Christian Brit. In the movie, Buliwyf asks Fadlan if he can, ‘draw sounds’, meaning to record speech in written form. It is generally accepted that the runic alphabet was brought to the Vikings by a traveller, who became known as Odyn in their mythology, later being elevated to the status of a god. The journey and development of the runic alphabet can be traced back through Europe to its origins in the middle-east.

It is also worthy of note that the personage of Odyn is referred to as ‘grim’, meaning hooded, and ‘dark’, possibly because he was of a middle-eastern origin and would have had dark hair, eyes and complexion compared with the redheaded and blonde-haired, pale or ruddy complexions of the Nordic races. His garb was also unusual enough to warrant comment.

The 13th Warrior was not the success that may have been expected from, John McTiernan, director of blockbusters such as Die Hard, and passed without being noticed by many who could have appreciated its content on the level at which it was intended, instead garnering luke-warm reviews and even a few hostile ones from mainstream critics who could not see beyond the rim of their tub of popcorn.

In contrast, Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, published the same year, was well received by the critics and did make it into the best seller lists. This most recent translation was also released as a talking book edition, read by the poet with his expressive Irish lilt. This form best suits the work, so it is unfortunate that the spoken version has been abridged for release, though it remains a very enjoyable and certainly a most accessible rendition.

You can listen to Seamus Heaney reading his translation of Beowulf: part one and part two
...or you could read his translation in text for yourself here.

Four further films have since tackled the task of re-telling the classic tale. A fairly low-key (not Loki) historical drama treatment, Beowulf and Grendel, was filmed in 2005 against the moody backdrop of Icelandic landscapes. This was a solid attempt at a more naturalistic, performance-driven interpretation with Gerard Butler as Beowulf and Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson as a more ‘homo-simian’ Grendel.

Then, in 2007, there was the pioneering CGI Hollywood epic version of Beowulf, starring a ‘buffed-up’ Ray Winstone in the central role of the ‘larger-than-life-but-authentically-flawed’ hero and an interpretation of Grendel portrayed as, hideous – yes – but also a sympathetic victim to some extent – an unfortunate outsider, unable to comprehend the hatred and revulsion he inspires in others. The role of Grendel’s mother was given a seductive makeover in the form of Angelina Jolie as the Sea ‘Hag’.

Beowulf confronts Grendel's mother, the 'Sea-Hag'!?

Also in 2007, possibly to ride the bandwagon of the bigger budget movie, Grendel  was back as a straightforward villain in a made for TV monster-movie, Grendel: The Legend of Beowulf, that puts aside any real trappings of historical accuracy in favour a being a CGI powered romp… the Vikings even wear the good old horned helmets (which they did not really do). It is a bit of monstrous fun, if you are in the right mood, and the visualisation of Grendel is closer to how he was described, or at least hinted at, in the original text.

More recently, in 2008, Outlander introduced a ‘futuregoth’ theme in a clever re-imagining of the tale. A crashed space ship brings the hero and an alien menace that will fulfill the role of both Grendel and the Firedrake. Again the villain is shown as sympathetic, one of the last few of an alien race that were dreadfully wronged and now seek understandable vengeance. Yet its jailer-custodian cannot allow that wrath to be vented on the unsuspecting Viking villages of Earth, and so steps in to defend their inhabitants.

Cinema is not the only transmedia journey taken by our ancient hero… in 1975, probably spurred on by the huge success of the Penguin translation, DC Comics launched, Beowulf: Dragon Slayer, a typically camp and musclebound interpretation of the saga. Well almost. The comic soon veers away and leaves very little in common with the original epic. There are horned helmets and bikini clad maidens left right and centre, and also a whole array of international, cross-cultural monsters for Beowulf to slay – it seems he will travel far and wide to avoid, or at least, postpone his confrontation with Grendel!

Produced in 2008, the slim graphic novel, Beowulf: Monster Slayer, adapted by Paul Storrie and illustrated by Ron Randall, is a bold attempt to compress the poem and render it more accessible to younger readers, which it does fairly well… Though produced around the same time, Gareth Hinds' three volume Beowulf is the most successful graphic adaptation to date.

Each volume tackles a main segment: Beowulf versus Grendel in book one, takes on his mother in book two and defeats the firedrake in the third volume before being proven to be mortal himself. These books are now available collected in a single volume.

Beowulf graphically retold by Gareth Hinds

There have been other graphic re-tellings of the legend and most are listed here, with some samples of artwork.

…and so the story of Beowulf continues to capture the imagination of readers, and viewers, to this day - perhaps this is because the story operates on a number of levels. It is obviously an action adventure, heroic epic and ripping yarn, but it is also a symbolic parable that reflects not only the trials and triumphs that beset Beowulf throughout the journey of his life, but those that have continuously confronted all human endeavour on both the physical and spiritual levels.

If you are interested in the reality behind Viking life, then there is currently (until 22 June) a major exhibition at the British Museum that you should take time out to visit – more information and some on-line resources here.

Enthroned Odin - small silver piece currently on display in the
British Museum's Vikings: Life and Legend exhibition

AB-solutely FAB-ulist: The Heart & Soul Of Clive Barker

Clive Barker is no longer the foremost figure in British ‘horror’. He is the world’s foremost ‘fabulist’, a genre he created for himself that he says stems from folklore, fairy-tales and scripture. He has also fled these shores, having set up home just outside Los Angeles. 

The fame of Barker has grown and grown, from the first cult readership of The Books Of Blood short stories more than two decades ago, to the now world-wide audience that keep his novels in the international best selling charts for months on end. 

Clive Barker photo courtesy of HarperCollins

His more recent works have been epic tales that sweep the reader along from world to world and from one reality to another. Galilee was the novel to firmly establish Clive Barker as a literary presence outside of genre, it is a huge generation-spanning family saga set against the broad canvas of America’s bloodstained history - a little bit of a departure from what his vast audience may have come to expect. Although there is action occurring on supernatural planes, much of the drama is earthbound and human centred. 

So was Barker deliberately trying to come down to earth in order appeal to a yet wider audience? 

“I could not say that I woke up one morning and decided to do this - I don’t have a lot of control over the way my imagination works, it sort of decides by itself. I always had a passion to do a multi-generational family saga. I wanted to do something with a real sweep to it.” 

“I’ve made sure that supernatural stuff is going on in the book, but I can see by the numbers that we were widening the readership as I context these fantastical events in more realistic settings. As I’ve moved more in that direction, my readers have moved along with me…” 

He has turned four of his stories into major movies, Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Candyman and Lord Of Illusion, in addition to the numerous adaptations based on his huge repertoire of short stories. His epic saga, Weaveworld, has been adapted for television as a series, though this project has yet to reach fruition after ten years in development. It did see a transmedia manifestation when it was published back in 1991 as a three-part comic series, adapted by Erik Salzgaber, who has more recently written for the CSI franchise.

On its release, Hellraiser was hailed as heralding the resurgence of British horror cinema... So what happened? 

“The problem is that the Americans stole our thunder. They make these movies so much faster and so much cheaper than we do. I had to go to America for the money to make Hellraiser, I had to for Nightbreed. I went to America to make movies there... there’s nowhere to make my kind of movies here.” 

 Clive Barker made his presence felt in the USA, rapidly earning himself a degree of notoriety and infamy. Hellraiser and especially Nightbreed stirred up plenty of trouble with the MPAA, the American equivalent to the British Board of Film Censors. Are the States a suitable climate for making his kind of movies? 

“They gave us seventeen scenes they wanted cut from Nightbreed... I got four Xs on the movie and I only got one on Hellraiser. Which is bizarre to my mind because the movie is a much mellower and less aggressively horrible movie than Hellraiser. Well both movies are fairy tales.

“What can you say - they’re inconsistent. That is the nature of the censorship game: you never know where they’re going to come from. They’re always going to find something, that you don’t think twice about, bothers them in an incredibly weird way and then something that you think is really gonna cause trouble, they just pass over. There’s no logic or pattern to it and that’s very irritating. 

 “There are people who have suffered it far worse than I have, Cronenberg is obviously an example, but that’s the way it is, you’re dealing with irrational people.” 

What was it like dealing with David Cronenberg - one of Barker’s heroes and one of the horror genre’s most respected directors himself - who starred in Nightbreed? 

“Wonderful, a deeply rational man. He is someone who’s enthusiasm for the genre is not dissimilar to mine in the sense that we both feel that you can do things with the genre which are more than saying ‘Boo’ behind people’s backs. I’ve never been interested in ‘Boo’ pictures, and David isn’t either. You don’t go to one of David’s movies to be made to jump, you get something different, a kind of intelligence and poetry which is missing in most horror movies. 

“And he had a good time making the movie. He said, ‘Hey do I get to come back with worms coming out of my eyes?’ And I said, ‘David, if you want to come back with worms coming out of your eyes, you got it guy, no problem’!” 

It’s not only the MPAA that get worked up over Barker’s fiction and films. We all know that the States are crammed with fanatics and bible-thumpers, but Clive knows this better than most... 

“I get so much mail, some saying I am already burning in Hell - which is an interesting theological notion - but many saying I will burn in Hell, or that I’m the Devil’s child or on occasion I’m elevated to the Devil himself. I get copies of The Bible with passages underlined and so on. I mean the hypocrisy and nonsense of it all, where does one begin?” 

Which of course leads us to believe that these god-bothering people actually read Barker’s books... Does it worry him that there is this fascination with the darker side, which is always a prominent theme in his works? 

“I’m much more concerned that people are interested in the Catholic church. I’m much more concerned that the Catholic church prevents contraception in nations that are spilling over with starving babies. It seems to me that the people who pull on the black magic string don’t look at the organised religions and their horrors anything like closely enough. If you want a really scary religion, look at fundamentalism, in any form.” 

Clive Barker was born and raised in Liverpool, which has a strong Catholic community and culture, how much does he owe to his roots? The accent is now lost and his speech liberally spiced with Americanisms... 

“I never had the accent. Knowing what part of is your roots, what part is your education, what part is genetic, what part of you is self made - those are difficult analyses. It’s a bit like being told by some body that you look like one of your relatives... and you can’t see the resemblance, it may very well be there, but you just can’t see it. And I feel the same about my roots. Maybe I do seem like a child of Liverpool, but I can’t see the resemblance. Your environment makes a mark on you, of course.” 

Ever since the first groups of humans huddled round the first fires, the Shaman has been with us - priest, teacher, medicine man. A storyteller recounting his dreams, tales of spirits and animals in the Otherworld. His dreams would become the dreams of the tribe, their identity.

It is from his dream diary that Clive Barker plucks many ideas and themes for his bizarre creations. His dreams become his drawings, stories, novels, films, and our memories and nightmares. There are many parallels between the state of dreaming and watching a movie in the darkened auditorium. Does Barker parallel himself at all with the Shaman? 

“The whole idea of the shamanistic principle, that the tribe can collectively dream a solution to a problem and that the shaman somehow indicates the direction in which the tribe heads off into their collective unconscious, to pick around amongst the bones of old gods and return with news and indications... that is very easily parallel with what, particularly the writer of the fantastique is doing. 

“The realist, the writer of naturalist fiction, is necessarily bound, by definition. The fantasist says, all right, I can write about divinity, semi-divinity, demons, gods and spirits of air and water or stone. I can write about human beings, sane, crazed, visionary, even dead and I can write about them all in landscapes that are very realistic or very unrealistic. I can write about them in states of mind which are also worlds unto themselves. 

“So when you’ve got that range of possibilities, reality dissolves, which I think is a dreamstate in a way because in our dreams we also meet the dead, we commune with gods and spirits. Whether we literally do that is an issue which I haven’t resolved for myself. I’m tempted to think that sometimes we do, that there is a literal sense in which in certain states of consciousness, dreaming, trance states, drug states, any altered states, I think it’s very possible that in some instances we are actually communicating with entities other than human, at least other than living human. 

“But even putting aside that possibility - which I realise marks me as a crazy - let’s just assume that this is all the mind’s creation. Even under those circumstances, in dreams we are learning from our subconscious, which is, to take the realist view, representing itself as the dead or the semi-divinities in order to instruct us. We are learning from those forms and forces in symbolic form, and we are growing by the exchange.” 

The Shaman was the most respected of the tribe, he has a great power, but little wealth. Is it the power or the wealth that motivates Barker? Does he find himself exercising restraint in his fiction to comply with what his now vast audience want to see? 

“I don’t know what they want. They seem to be willing to take me at my most extreme. Which pleases me. Great And Secret Show doesn’t soft pedal any of its themes, which are very difficult. There is some strange fantastical stuff, the odd sex, some very violent material, it’s a big book and so on... Yet it was one of the most popular books in terms of number of copies sold that I’ve done. So I don’t think about my audience in the sense that I think, ‘Oh, I’d better not do that - it might turn them off’. 

“With movies it’s a different thing. You’ve got the constant problem of the MPAA and the BBFC and so you’ve got people telling you that you can’t do this... but in books it never occurs to me to mellow what I do... 

“As for motivation... I got through my twenties without earning a dime and not worrying about it. Money has never been a motivation. 

“It is very important for me to produce - to make things that don’t resemble other people’s things. Not just for my audience’s sake but for my own so I don’t bore myself... It’s important for me to have the power storytelling gives. There is something very wonderful about holding someone enthralled, just as there is something wonderful about being held enthralled. 

“I love to be told a story, I love to be in the middle of a movie and know that this movie’s got me. Not just fantasy stories, it’s all kinds of stories... The story is about what happens next. That’s what the kid wants to know when he’s told a story, ‘What happens next?’ It’s very primitive, very simple. And I love to have that done for me. 

“I hate knowing what is going to happen next. My problem with most Hollywood movies is you always do. There’s a terrible predictability about most movies, particularly horror movies. You enter most movies knowing who’s gonna live or die, knowing what the division of good and bad is, knowing who you’re going to end up caring for and who you’re not. 

“I have nothing in my life but work - that may sound like a trial, but it isn’t. I desire nothing in my life but the making of stories on the screen or on the page, and it obsesses me.” 

Clive Barker has more than enough to keep himself busy... In addition to creating and writing his ‘fabulist’ tales – currently concentrating on the Abarat series that he also illustrates – he has ventured deeper and deeper into the world of Hollywood and film production. He was Executive Producer on the 1998 film, Gods And Monsters, the critically respected biopic of cult horror director James Whale. Dread, adapted from Barker’s short story by Anthony DiBlasi was released in 2009 and there are two more movie manifestations currently awaiting release: The Thief Of Always, scheduled for 2010, and Tortured Souls, adapted from his own Hellraiser-linked short story and being directed by Barker himself … and he tells us that he intends to, “get on with the business of making movies on a case by case basis...” 

Then, after a short pause, he adds, “But I don’t take movies as seriously as I take books. And never will.” 

- Clive Barker was in conversation with Remy Dean.