6:00pm Thursday 22nd July 2010
By Andrew Ffrench
With his latest thriller hitting the shelves, Gerald Seymour has been busy on the promotion trail, writes ANDREW FFRENCH.
A SMARTLY dressed man in his 60s is led into a warehouse on the Milton Park estate near Didcot and sent to a large office, where he is confronted with a towering pile of hardback books.
He is given a cup of coffee and a special pen and told to start signing his autograph.
A few hours later, the same painful process is repeated at an equally bleak distribution centre in Swindon.
It is the closest celebrated thriller writer Gerald Seymour will ever come to being tortured, something that happens with frightening regularity in his gripping novels.
But the author, whose latest novel The Dealer and the Dead has just been published, is delighted to push himself through the pain barrier.
“I must have signed 600 books today but I'm not complaining because it’s a great privilege to be in this position,” he tells The Guide.
Seymour now lives near Wallingford and when I reach him on his mobile he is at Reading station, heading home after his marathon signing session.
The writer finds an area of the platform which is not too packed with passengers and tells me he is pleased with the presentation of his new novel.
“An author soon realises that the production of a novel involves a lot more than just your fantasies.
“A lot of people put in sweat, blood and tears,” he says.
There was plenty of sweat, blood and tears in Seymour’s last novel, The Collaborator, now riding high in the bestseller lists, and his latest story doesn’t disappoint.
Harvey Gillot is an arms dealer who was assigned to help a Croatian village near Vukovar duing the war with the Serbs 19 years ago.
But for some reason Gillot was unable to keep his end of the bargain and failed to deliver the vital arms that would have protected the village.
Many die horrible deaths and when their bodies are finally exhumed from a cornfield, Gillot’s name is revealed on a piece of paper and the trail of revenge leads to the UK.
Seymour knew about the siege of Vukovar and wanted to find out more, so he visited the region in 2008.
The trip did not disappoint and although the novel examines the murky world of arms trading, the focus remains “that bend on the Danube and those cornfields”, says Seymour.
The talks the novelist had with villagers stirred the juices of his imagination and he felt compelled to write about the conflict.
“People wanted to talk about the war as if it was yesterday and not 19 years ago,” he adds.
“In my old job as a journalist I would have wanted to be there when the events happened but as a novelist there is scope to come along after the Lord Mayor’s show to pick up the aftermath and the relics.
“The scars are still very deep and raw but for all that there is still evidence of a very brave positive people.”
I haven’t quite finished reading The Dealer and the Dead when I talk to the veteran thriller writer and he laughs when I tell him I fear for the safety of Harvey Gillot.
“My characters are not good bets for insurance policies,” he admits.
“Harvey is the sort of person most people would absolutely shun but there are mavericks and chancers that we all know.
“He may not be in any way sympathetic but I thought if I could screw some redemption out of him he would be a character worth having, and I got to like him rather a lot by the end.”
Following a holiday watching otters on the Isle of Mull, Seymour has returned refreshed and is preparing to write his next blockbuster.
“There will be some dark corner somewhere where my characters will be challenged and tested and learn more about themselves,” he warns.
I can’t wait.
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