Crime does pay... … for bestselling crime novelist Peter James, who has swapped Sussex by the sea for Jersey in the ocean. His new book, ‘I’ll follow you’ was published in October and has a Jersey setting. He talked to Alasdair Crosby
I
n Peter James’ office, there is a prominent notice: ‘Careful, or you might end up in my novel.’
‘I collect faces, names and characters,’ he said. ‘Also, if someone irritates me, I put their name on a toe tag in a mortuary. A writer in a Sussex magazine once wrote an article mentioning my detective character, Roy Grace, in which she said: “I think we’ve all had enough of Roy Grace as a central character…” In my next book, I had the magazine being used as cat litter and I had her being dissected at the mortuary.’ But paying to have your name as a character in of his books is a clever idea to raise money for charity - and Peter James is a supporter and patron of many charities. Last year the High Sherriff of Sussex paid £6,000 to charity to be a dead body in one of his books.
56
Among the local charities and branches he now supports are Jersey Crimestoppers, the NSPCC, Shelter (he was one of the ‘Jersey 12’ who supported the charity by paying to spend a night in prison) and he has donated one of his racing cars to Jersey Police to be marked up in Police colours; it can be seen out and about, as a way of engaging youngsters in such matters as road safety. He is also currently in contact with the Jersey Greyhound Rescue Trust.
“
I collect faces, names and characters,’ he said. ‘Also, if someone irritates me, I put their name on a toe tag in a mortuary
This last charity is a natural choice for him, in view of his own love for animals - a love that he shares with his wife, Lara. In particular he loves dogs: ‘If you murdered somebody, afterwards the dog would just jump up and lick you. The cat would look at you and know you’d done it. Never trust a man who doesn’t like dogs. Trump is the first U.S president in 100 years not to have a dog…what does that say about him?’ They brought their three dogs with them when they moved to Jersey: Oscar, a rescued Labrador, Wally, a young golden retriever and Spooky, a friendly labradoodle. There are also two Burmese cats, Mrs Wu and Willie. But the animal family is more extensive than just dogs and cats. In Sussex they had four alpacas: sadly, they can’t bring them to Jersey because alpacas are potential TB carriers - they will be re-homed ‘somewhere really nice’.
