Ann Cleeves - The great escape

The British writer’s character-driven crime novels have enthralled millions of readers and the TV adaptations, Vera, Shetland and The Last Call have become a staple of TV crime lineups. The third book in the Two Rivers series, A Raging Storm, has just been published and next month she will be writer in residence at Tasmania’s crime festival, Terra Australis. Before packing her bags she made time to answer a few questions from The Gleaner about her enduring characters and why reading is ‘the very best escape there is’.

Matthew Venn, from your latest series, Two Rivers, is a married gay man and a police officer who grew up in a rigid, cloistered community. What was the inspiration for this character?

Matthew Venn grew from a visit to an old school friend after my husband died. She’d grown up in a similar community – rigid and certain but not unkind. But if someone lost their faith publicly and dramatically, they’d be cast out. I thought a man with that background might feel chaotic, unsettled, and might turn to the police service to find the sense of duty and community that they’d lost. He’s gay because the people who looked after me after my husband died were a gay couple. They were rattling around in my head when I started writing and I wanted to celebrate their relationship.

Is this the kind of complexity that gives longevity to a character?

I think so! It would be very boring writing about a character with no depth. And if the writer is bored, the

Why do you think your characters resonate so much?

I think I’ve been very lucky. Partly that’s down to Silverprint, the television company that makes the adaptations. The actors bring my characters to life, so when viewers come back to the books, they find people they recognize. They might LOOK different, but the tone is the same.

What draws you to the crime genre?

I’m not very good at plotting, so traditional crime fiction gives me a structure within which to work. Also, by writing about the tragedy of murder, we see people faced with extreme emotion.

You have written more than 30 novels in your career: what drives you to write? Could you imagine life without it?

I’ve never written more than a book a year – I’ve just been lucky enough to sustain a very long career. I still had a day job for the first 20 years. Writing, like reading, has always been an escape for me. I can’t imagine not working.

What do you prefer writing: series or standalone novels?

Series, I think. Both the Vera and Shetland first novels started out as standalones, and then I found I had more to say about the people and the places.

You’re something of a reading evangelist. Apart from the obvious – that you are an author who wants people to read her novels! – why do you see this as important?

Reading opens minds and hearts. It puts us inside the heads of people very different from ourselves, so we can see the world through their eyes. And if people are distressed or unwell, reading is the very best escape there is.

You will be International writer in residence at Tasmania’s crime festival Terror Australis: Tassie Vice in October. What are you most looking forward to about your trip to Australia and could the landscape of our southern-most state inspire a new character?

I’m so looking forward to Terror Australis and I’m very honoured and grateful to have been invited. It’s rare to have the opportunity to spend more than a day or two in a place when I’m touring, and this will give me the chance to get a real sense of the island and its community. I won’t know Tasmania well enough after a fortnight to set a novel there, but it might inspire a short story.