Douglas Skelton’s life of crime
Lochgilphead Library played host to another great author, this time Glasgowbased crime writer Douglas Skelton.
Hosted by LiveArgyll as part of the Scottish Book Trust’s Book Week Scotland, Douglas Skelton walked his audience through the subgenres of crime fiction: the rebels, the anti-heroes, the maverick cops and the lone gumshoes.
Having spent a lot of time on a campaign aiding what he called ‘miscarriage of justice’, Douglas Skelton then used the techniques of his research to create fictional stories of crime in Glasgow.
He said: ‘It gave me a realistic grounding I’ve built on and then gone away from.’
Designed
His longest running series, centred around ‘hard man with a heart’ Davie McCall, was designed to address the other side of police crime, with a character raised in gangs who wants out.
Douglas said: ‘The first book I did, Blood on the Thistle, I was given a 12-week deadline. That was 12 weeks of intensive research into murders and crime scenes and procedures.
‘Around week eight I started having nightmares. Vicious and bloody nightmares.’
Journalist
At the moment Douglas is working on his next book, Thunder Bay, about a 25-yearold journalist on a Scottish island.
When asked why not make it Mull, to give the island some exposure, Douglas laughed. ‘Because the things I say and the things done there you don’t want done in a real place.’
He continued: ‘I know how it starts and I think I know who did it, but that might change.’
The crime genre is now considered the most popular in the UK, when asked why that is Douglas Skelton said: ‘When it comes down to it, a well-written crime story is about people.’