Scottish Bookshelf
After years of writing, the former painter and decorator found literary fame overnight with a gripping and brutal thriller
An interview with crimewriter Graeme Macrae Burnett, plus all the latest reviews
AT the beginning of 2016, Glasgow-based author Graeme Macrae Burnet was little-known. The writer, who grew up in Kilmarnock, had published two novels and was working as a painter and decorator between writing sessions. But everything changed when his second book His Bloody Project, was longlisted, then shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, shooting him right out of obscurity and into literary stardom.
Now, as we wait to find out who will grace this year’s longlist, to be announced this month, Graeme looks back at his incredible writing career – and his latest project.
“I started writing while I was still at school,” Graeme says. “I read The Catcher in the Rye, which kind of blew my mind. I wasn’t really a reader as a teenager, and then I came across that book quite by accident. Just from the opening pages I was like wow – here’s a book that I relate to as a disgruntled teenage boy.”
The book inspired Graeme to begin writing, a discipline he continued at university. After his studies, he went travelling, living in Prague, Portugal, France and London. On his return to Scotland he began working as a television researcher.
“I was always writing stuff, but I’d had very little success. I lost the job in TV when I was 40 and I thought, OK come on. It’s time to do the thing that you’ve always wanted to do, so I wrote The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau. It took me about three years to write and another three years before it was published through Saraband, a company I love.
“It was quite a long journey. I’m a great believer in the craft of writing and I think you can only learn by trying out different styles,
different genres and different forms. I feel like I served an apprenticeship before I was published.”
In 2014, Saraband released the book that would change Graeme’s life. His Bloody Project is a crime novel which focuses on 17-year-old Highland crofter Paddy Macrae who is awaiting trial in Inverness for the heinous murder of three people in 1869. Part memoir, part historical documents – the structure of the book is devised in such a way, that many readers believe the trial really did take place.
“When I was a student in Glasgow in the late 80s I came across a book called I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister, and My Brother – which is possibly the greatest title ever,” Graeme says.
“It’s a book that’s told in a series of documents, and is about a murder case in 1835 in France where a peasant killed three members of his own family and then wrote a memoir about it. I was totally fascinated by the idea that this peasant had committed these acts of huge violence but was able to write an account of what he’d done.”
When it came to sitting down to write his second novel, that book, which was edited by Michel Foucault, came back to Graeme.
“My mum’s from the Highlands, so that’s why the book is set there. I know that part of the country well. I did a bit of research and suddenly the history of those crofting communities and that way of life really began to feed into the narrative and characters of the book.”
The fictional tale is often mistaken for a true crime book, a genre that has become increasingly popular over the last few years. Did Graeme’s His Bloody Project pre-empt that trend?
“A lot of people think that my novel is true, which kind of appeals to my mischievous side.
“I used to work in a bookshop in the early 2000s, and at that time the true crime department was a bit of a
“A peasant killed three of his family then memoir” wrote a
dirty secret. People tended to be very embarrassed to be browsing there – that has changed. I don’t know why that is, but I suppose it was probably good timing for His Bloody Project. I’d love to claim that I had my finger on the pulse and knew what was coming, but I didn’t.
“I try not to consider external factors when I’m writing something. I’m not thinking what kind of audience it’ll have or how people will react to it. Everyone’s different but I have all these voices in my head telling me that everything I write is terrible and why bother – which makes things hard enough without adding in those external considerations too.”
After years of writing without much recognition, Graeme and his publisher felt like 2016 was the right time to go in for the Booker Prize.
“I knew my publisher had chosen to put me forward for the prize, which I was really pleased about. In all honesty, I thought the judges would notice my book because of the structure of it, and I did think, well why not? Why not my book?
“Having said that, when I got the phone call, I was in the middle of a painting and decorating job and it was a massive surprise. I was driving back up the road to Glasgow and I was like – wow! Within hours, my publisher was getting calls from foreign publishers.
“Because of the crime novel tag, the small publisher, and the David and Goliath-esque story, we got a lot of coverage. Editors were telling their journalists they needed a story on the Booker longlist and we became that story.”
The novel continued to receive attention. It became a bestseller, and has been translated into 20 different languages. Although it didn’t win the Booker Prize, His Bloody Project did go on to win the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award as well as the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year. The writer was also named Author of the Year by the Sunday Herald Culture Awards.
Graeme published his third novel The Accident on the A35 in 2017 and is currently working on his highly anticipated fourth work. “My latest novel is set in 1960s London and is told through a series of notebooks which I’ve been ‘sent’ – lucky for me!”
When asked if there’s a crime element to this new novel, Graeme pauses before giving a hearty laugh.
“The character at the beginning of the book believes a crime has been committed. Whether or not a crime has been committed – I can’t tell you!”
“I did think, well why not? Why not book?” my
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet is published by Saraband.