Beyond Reach

Graham Hurley

Graham Hurley was born November, 1946 in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. His seaside childhood was punctuated by football, swimming, afternoons on the dodgems, run-ins with the police, multiple raids on the local library - plus near-total immersion in English post-war

To date he has written, 16 novels , one biography, plus Airshow, a fly-on-the-wall novel-length piece of reportage. He draws gleefully on home-town Portsmouth for the basis of an on-going crime series featuring D/I Joe Faraday and D/C Paul Winter. He has also contributed to columns in the Portsmouth News. He is married to Lin and has three grown-up sons (Tom, Jack and Woody), a wayward cat (Rommie), and the best view in the world. His lifetime ambitions are to master: colloquial French, the trickier bits of Word 2000, windsurfing without tears, and the perfect Chicken Bhuna......

Maxim Jakubowski's view on JOE FARADAY...

The investigations of a Portsmouth cop and a fascinating look into crime on the British coast. If you like Ian Rankin’s Rebus, this should be your next step. NO LOVELIER DEATH is the 9th book in the Faraday series.

A Q & A with Graham Hurley

Who’s your favourite author?
The Alan Furst of The Polish Officer and The World at Night.

Where do you live? And why?
Portsmouth. Because so many people ask me why.

What’s the greatest influence on your writing?
Lin Rowden.

What is your philosophy for life?
Check the tide tables and watch for eddies.

Have you had any formal tuition in creative writing? If so, where and what? Did you find it useful?
BA/MA Cambridge University (English – no help at all). No formal tuition in creative writing except a pathological nosiness and a fascination with story. Profound doubts about collective literary endeavour. Why? Because, in the end, writing is a solitary business.

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you originally want to be and when and why did you change your mind?
Yes. And like most authors, I’m not sure why. But – emphatically – yes.

Who do you most admire and why?
My mum (seriously). Because she’s never failed to make the very best of an occasionally dodgy hand. Huge fortitude.

What jobs did you have before you started writing?
Ice cream salesman, deckchair attendant, lifeguard, prep school teacher (scripture and cricket), Radio Victory reporter, TV promotion scriptwriter, TV researcher, TV documentary director/producer, Oz TV cop series writer.

If your house was burning down what would you save?
Lin Rowden, the cats, a framed photo of the Otter estuary, me.

What do you do when you are not writing? How do you relax? What are your hobbies?
Sailing, cycling, nosing around, tussling with French, dreaming of the day Tony Blair resigns.