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BIOGRAPHY
Richard
Doyle was born in Guernsey. Almost
immediately the family moved to
Ethiopia where Richard's father
had been appointed legal adviser
to Haile Selassie. At the age of
three Richard was presented to the
Emperor. His behaviour was impeccable
until, catching sight of a small
dog, he disappeared under the throne
in pursuit. To his mother's relief,
the old tyrant was amused.
Kuwait
followed Ethiopia with all the fun
of life on an American oil base:
Marvel comics, Tarzan movies and
as much Coca-Cola as you wanted.
In term time Richard had to fly
back to boarding school in England
which he found cold, bleak and riddled
with unfathomable rules. At fifteen
he persuaded his parents that he
could study just as well from home.
The
gamble paid off. Richard won a place
at Lincoln College, Oxford where
he spent three gloriously decadent
years. Then, equipped with a law
degree but no desire to practice,
he joined an investment firm in
the City of London.
For
the first few years Richard enjoyed
the work. He was with a friendly
crowd and the pay was good. But
at the back of his mind there was
always the sneaking feeling that
he had sold his soul. After one
summer holiday, he gave in his notice.
He was going to become a writer.
Richard's
first book Deluge was well received.
His second Imperial 109 a stunning
success. Set on a pre-WWII Imperial
Airways flying boat it combined
plot and romance in an exuberant
cocktail. 'Pure joy in story-telling'
according to the Sunday Times. Worldwide
over a million copies were sold.
Two
novels followed, Pacific Clipper
and Havana Special, and then Richard
decided to take a break and do other
things for a while. He travelled
widely and experimented with living
in Ireland and the West Indies and
France.
In
1998 Richard hit the shelves again
with Executive Action, a switch-back
of a thriller about the Presidency
and The White House staff. By then
he was already into his first year
of research for Flood.
Richard
now lives on a farm near Dartmoor
with his wife, Sally, and twelve
year old son, Caspar.
Did
you enjoy the book? Do you like
the website?
Email Richard with your views.
>>top
RICHARD DOYLE TALKS ABOUT WRITING
FLOOD
How did I get the idea for the
book?
A
question I usually dread, but for
once I have an answer. It was after
reading an article on global warming.
One of those terrifying pieces about
more extreme weather, rising sea
levels and frequent violent storms.
Suddenly I remembered the Thames
Barrier. I wondered how it would
cope.
I
had lived in London when the Barrier
was being built. It was the kind
of ambitious project that you couldn't
help admire. The main gates arrived
at the site by specially chartered
barge - they were simply too massive
for road transport.
Anyway,
I started to look into some of the
details. Barrier height, tidal reports
and so forth. The more I looked,
the more concerned I became.
Did
you do much research?
Yes.
More than for any of my previous
books and I've always had a reputation
for meticulous research. I probably
spent about two and a half years
on it. Meetings, interviews, site
visits and many hundreds of telephone
calls.
First
there was the tramping about London.
Long footsore hours walking the
Thames embankment and flood risk
zone, checking out public buildings,
measuring heights, taking photographs.
I travelled backwards and forwards
on the Jubilee Line more times than
I like to remember. Boat trips were
useful too, especially for looking
at the bridges and the state of
embankment walls.
Then
there were libraries. All research
involves library work but doing
Flood I discovered some out of the
way places like the Institute of
Civil Engineers and the London Archives.
It is amazing what you can find
out if you ferret around in dusty
papers.
I
used the internet a lot. It was
brilliant for maps and plans, for
details of companies and of the
military. Interestingly, quite a
few of the sites have disappeared
since September 11th.
The
best part though, was the personal
contact. People were genuinely interested
in the book and prepared to go to
a great deal of trouble to help.
I can't begin to list all of them,
but here are a few:
Dave
Smith, head of the Storm Tide Forecasting
Service at the Met Office ('Stormy
Dave' to his colleagues). Dave not
only spent hours showing me round
but put up with dozens of subsequent
requests for information and explanation.
There may not be much about the
Met Office in the book but without
Dave's tuition on tides and surges,
I couldn't even have started.
Much
the same goes for the Environment
Agency. I had a mass of advice,
policy and technical, from EA staff.
And nobody held back which, for
a government agency, is refreshing.
The
Thames Barrier staff. I spent a
riveting day at the Barrier, seeing
the Operations Room and walking
along the service tunnels underneath
the river. Venetia Maitland follows
my footsteps in chapter four of
Flood.
Chief
Inspector Tom Pine of the Metropolitan
Police Thames Division talked me
through every aspect of police emergency
procedure and was the first to admit
that the services are unprepared
for major tidal flooding.
London
Fire Brigade were realistic too.
They showed me their control room
and spoke freely about limitations.
At
the Cabinet Office Commander Morris
took tremendous pains to brief me
accurately on his duties. This meeting
helped to crystallise in my mind
the role of Roland Raikes.
And
finally my MP's wife Billie Burnett.
Billie entered wholeheartedly into
the plot and gave me a most informative
tour of the river-level warren of
passages in the House of Commons.
There
were many others: Thames Water,
London Underground and the staff
at Network Control Centre, the Harbour-Master
at Wick, all local authority Emergency
Planning Officers in the flood zone...
Flood
really was an exceptionally interesting
book to research. I only hope that
all those involved will feel I have
done them credit.
Did
you enjoy writing the book too?
Yes
- most of the time. There are always
difficult bits in a book - scenes
that don't come out quite as you
imagined. Working alone, it is easy
to get dispirited. At least with
the Flood story I could fall back
on the fact that I had an important
point to make.
How
do you go about writing?
I
don't mind much where I live but
my study has to be on an upper floor
so that I'm not disturbed. It has
to have a bed to lie and think on
and two desks, one for a PC and
one for scribbles and mess. When
I was doing Flood I had huge maps
and charts pinned up all round the
walls.
For
me writing is a job, which means
I have to do it even when I'm not
feeling in the mood. I try to write
1000 words a day unless I'm planning
a new section. My most productive
time tends to be late evening, around
seven to nine, which is horribly
inconvenient for the rest of the
family. After finishing I take a
bath and often dictate another page
or so while I'm soaking.
Some
authors under-write, I over-write.
My manuscripts are invariably much
too long. This is where the editor
comes in. A good editor can make
a book.
In
the original version of Flood I
started to track the storm up in
Hull (they have a drop-gate type
of barrier in the Humber) and followed
it down the East Coast with scenes
in Norfolk and also at the Met.
Office. Out came the red pencil.
Nobody will read all that, my editor
said, it slows the pace. They'll
want to get on to London.
Together
we cut about 35,000 words. Almost
a quarter again of the present book.
What a waste!
Do
you believe the flood could happen?
Yes,
I do - which is why I have the website.
To put over all the back-up facts
and figures.
Barrier
designers took a narrow approach
in the first place and now even
their calculations are being turned
upside down by global warming. If
I still lived in London I'd be calling
my MP on a daily basis. Someone
has to make DEFRA take it's head
out of the sand.
>>top
EDITOR'S CUTS
Richard
Doyle explains...
The
original manuscript of Flood was
impossibly long. I had tracked the
ravages of the surge all down the
East Coast - into the Humber Estuary
and through much of Norfolk. I'd
also included scenes at the Met
Office to highlight the building
tension about the storm.
I
thought the whole thing was brilliant,
of course. Fortunately I have a
really excellent editor, Oliver
Johnson, at Century. Oliver instantly
saw the point of the book. "Speed
up the beginning, make it move fast,
the reader will want to get down
to London."
He
was absolutely right. Flood is a
much tighter, better book thanks
to the cuts. At the same time, I
can't help regretting some of the
characters and text that went into
the bin. So here's my chance. And
yours if you would like to read
a chapter that never made it into
the book.
(For
those who know the story, a footnote
about Mary Lucas. You'll meet her
here at the Met Office working with
her boss, Doug Fisher. The Met Office
and Doug both died the death of
the red pencil. Mary just made it
across, but in a reduced role).
-
click here for Editor's
Cuts -
>>top
OTHER BOOKS BY RICHARD DOYLE
Buy
this book from Amazon
Executive
Action
Century/Arrow
Jack
Meade wakes in a hospital bed. The
doctors tell him he has been in
the sea for two days - that he is
lucky to be alive. His face is so
salt ravaged he barely recognises
himself. All he can remember is
his name.
And
that is when the nightmare begins.
For
Jack Meade is the name of the President
Elect of the United States. In Washington
an exact double of Meade is preparing
to take the Oath of Office, a man
who thought he had killed Jack,
a man who has taken his wife and
fooled everyone in the country including
Jack's closest associates.
Meade
realises he has only one option:
to escape the hospital, go to Washington
and convince his wife and colleagues
that he is the President.
But
the usurper is now surrounded by
the might of the Secret Service
and America's armed forces. He has
already attempted to kill Jack once.
Now with all the power of the Presidency
behind him, he will try to silence
forever the one man who knows about
the deception.
Executive
Action is a heart-stopping thriller
that turns the world upside down
and puts the reader in the mind
of the most powerful man on earth
- a man brought low, fighting for
his sanity, his lost Presidency
and his life.
"Breathtaking, audacious.
More twists and turns than Tom
Clancy."
Chris Ryan, author of Land of
Fire.
>>top
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