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Ayo: What was the very first crime novel that you read and who introduced you to the genre?
Mo: David Lindsay’s Mercy. I had rather serious academic parents who taught me that crime writing was a bit lightweight, a bit trivial. It was all about total snobbery really when I look back. I was surprised that Mercy dealt with more far reaching themes than I had expected: for example the relationship between mother and daughter, the integration of the Hispanic community into the South West states.

Ayo: Who were your influences when you decided to start writing and what books influenced you as well?
Mo: Red Dragon absolutely terrified me, but the main thing I noticed was that it was really really well written – at least as good, if not far better, than the sort of ‘literary’ books that everyone raved about. I thought then that just because you’re writing genre it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice style. That was really exciting for me.

Ayo: What other books are you are you attracted to?
Mo: I’m reading two books: The Blind Man of Seville, by Robert Wilson and Alan Garner’s Red Shift. I suppose I’m enjoying Red Shift the most because inevitably the process of reading any crime novel is essentially all about work: you can’t help analysing and comparing it with your own work, so the fun and the escapism goes out of it.

Ayo: Is there a subject that you would not write about or feel would be too difficult in some way for the reader perhaps or for you to spend time with?
Mo: Well anything really dry – philosophy or the intricacies of the legal system maybe. If it doesn’t appeal to you the writer there’s absolutely no good reason to write about it. I also don’t think I could write about girls who call themselves ‘Moi’ and think that Prada is really really important. But I think you’re trying to ask me whether there are any taboos I wouldn’t break, and the answer is no - taboo subjects are the important and interesting subjects. They say so much about the culture that creates them.

Ayo: What’s your normal work schedule like?
Mo: Up at 5.30 or 6.00. Write until mid morning. A break to take young Lotte to the nursery then back from lunch until 5.00 ish. I wish I could write at night but a two year old in the house is a formidable thing. Ayo: What do you find the most distracting when you are writing? Mo: Two year olds and views. I can never understand people who say they like to write at an open window, that they are inspired by the view. I’d spend my whole time gazing out, wishing I was out there. And I could never write in a café: I’d be far too self conscious.

Ayo: Characterisation or plot, which do you think is more important?
Mo: Chicken or the egg? The old adage goes: plot is character and character is plot. But I suppose that for the sort of books I write if I’m honest the chief consideration is plot – that’s where I start.

Ayo: Tokyo, your latest book, took sometime in comparison to your first two novels. Was there a specific reason for this?
Mo: There was a lot of research to do, travelling to Japan and China, a lot of deciding how much to stretch the boundaries of the genre. But the biggest reason of all – as Cyril Connolly’s bitter comment about the pram in the hall suggested – was the baby. Is it true that for every child you have you lose a book? Yes – I’m in no doubt whatsoever.

Ayo: There is a historical side to Tokyo - what made you decide to use the Nanking Massacre as the starting point?
Mo: The Nanking massacre was always a going to be an important subject for me. As a teenager I’d seen a photo of a Japanese soldier beheading a civilian in Nanking and the image had stuck with me. When I was living in Japan I’d take vacations in Asia and hear a lot about the Japanese war atrocities (my stepmother’s family in the Philippines were witness to some of it). It started me thinking about what the Imperial Army had been capable of. The funny thing was that back in Japan no one had heard of the so called ‘Rape of Nanking’. So, just as Grey does in Tokyo, I began to wonder if I’d imagined the whole thing. When I started to uncover the truth about the massacre, and discovered that up to 300,000 people had died, I got the bit between my teeth and knew I’d have to write about it. It took a little longer to recognise the links between the massacre and modern day Tokyo (particularly the links between the military and the Yakuza), but when I started to uncover the links I realised how I was going to connect the experience of a foreign hostess in Tokyo with the story of a Chinese academic in the 1930s

Ayo: Can you tell us a bit about the characters and where they came from? Mo: Shi Chongming is partly based on my father – rather strict about allowing himself the luxury of emotion. He’s also spent his whole life focused on one particular goal so he’s quite driven. Grey is similarly driven, but more vulnerable. She’s not really equipped to function in the world.

Ayo: Is there any part of you in Grey?
Mo: If I was ever to set out to write an autobiographical account I think I’d go quite mad. I was quite certain from the outset of Tokyo that, although she did one or two of the things I’ve done in my life (working as a hostess for eg), Grey certainly was not me. Having said that of course it’s inevitable that parts of you creep into your characters, and I think a little of her maladjustment to the world comes from me.

Ayo: Grey is a rather damaged person and her fragility is clear throughout the novel, was she a difficult person to write about?
Mo: She started off life as mildly autistic. Then as her levels of achievement grew her autism had to diminish to such an extent that in the finished version it’s virtually invisible. I was sad about that because I liked writing an autistic person, and you only have to look at Mark Haddon to see what fascinating characters they make.

Ayo: Was the cultural aspect of the novel difficult to write or did your previous knowledge of Tokyo help?
Mo: The main problem I had was trying to decide what I felt about Nanking and the war in general. I found it so difficult to square the barbarism of what happened in China with the polite, self-effacing Japanese people I was meeting. Knowing Tokyo really helped, but I still felt the need to go back and top up on my memories.

Ayo: I believe that you returned to Tokyo in 2003 to do some research. How much did you feel that it had changed since you were last there?
Mo: It’s a much much easier place for a foreigner to live than it was 15 years ago. To start with they’ve been in deflation for some years so things are much cheaper and a dollar buys a lot more than it did in the 80s. But more importantly they’ve had the World Cup come through – and the result is that they are much more open to the outside world. Even the taxi drivers make some attempt to speak English, which they’d never have done 15 years ago.

Ayo: Did the tragic tale of Lucie Blackman have any influence on your writing?
Mo: I was already working on ideas for the book when she was murdered, so no, she wasn’t an influence on the book. But I was nevertheless disturbed by her story – to the extent that when I went back to do research in 2003 I chose to work in the same club she’d worked in. Recently I called Lucie’s father to talk to him about it. He seemed to think I was insane to have worked there just for research – why would anyone inflict that on themselves, was his feeling. But he was interested that I thought the girls were being pressured to bring customers into the clubs – because it’s his opinion that Lucie died because she was being pressured in this way.

Ayo: The issue of the girls working as hostesses and the way in which they are treated is also a sub topic of the novel. Had being a hostess changed that much from when you were one?
Mo: Times are hard for girls in the hostess industry. There simply isn’t the ready cash floating around that there was in the ‘80’s. They have to work very hard and a lot of pressure is put on them to bring customers into the clubs.

Ayo: Both the Birdman and The Treatment have quite a lot of brutality in them. In comparison to this the brutality in Tokyo is a lot more subtle. Was this intentional?
Mo: Tokyo is told by two narrators in the first person – so the amount of violence and the way it’s described is completely defined by them. Shi Chongming, being an academic, describes what he sees in Nanking rather analytically – except when it all becomes too much and he experiences a kind of breakdown – whereas Grey, who is much more dreamy, describes the violence she witnesses quite lyrically. Having said that there doesn’t need to be a lot of violence in this book – the fear and suggestion of violence is enough.

Ayo: Birdman, your first novel, shot you on to the bestsellers list, were you surprised at the amount of praise and approbation you received from readers and fellow crime writers?
Mo: Yes, yes yes! It was my first novel, the first time I’d tried to write anything. Most people setting out to be a writer are bombarded with negative stories about how difficult it is to get published – I’m sure it’s true but what happened to me proves that over night success can and does happen.

Ayo: In both Birdman and The Treatment you use South London as the background. Being from South London I could picture myself in all the places that you mention. What was it about South London that made you decide to use it as the background for your novels?
Mo: Oooh – well South London’s always had a reputation for being wild and woolly. In the 18th century it was a byword for vice and debauchery. But I suppose the most recent influence on it has been the German bombing. That has had such an important effect on housing issues and demography – and I think that’s what makes it a slightly off-centre, unpredictable place.

Ayo: Where did you get the ideas for the characters in Birdman and The Treatment?
Mo: Caffery is loosely based on my partner Keith. The others must be based on people I’ve known or run into over the years, although I’m not always aware that I’m basing characters on specific people, except for one notable exception: I was quite conscious whom I was borrowing from when I chose the name ‘Ayo’ for a character in The Treatment!

Ayo: What do you find the most difficult when you are writing?
Mo: Staying confident. Finding time to read. Having the end of my pen chewed by my bugger of a cat, Norman, who believe me, is treading a thin line at this point in time. Ayo: Who is the first person to read the novel once you have finished writing it? Mo: My agent, Jane, my editor, Selina, and my partner, Keith.

Ayo: How do you feel once you have finished writing?
Mo: It’s the best part of writing – the finishing. Of course you’re wondering about where you’re going to go next, but the relief at the end of a novel is incredible.

Ayo: Part and parcel of being a crime writer is the camaraderie that goes along with it. Do you enjoy attending conferences and book signings?
Mo: I think I’m a lot shyer than many writers I meet. I envy them because I find speaking about myself extremely difficult. It’s also quite odd to analyse a process like writing that feels rather instinctive. I’m keen to avoid making choices in my work just because I know that at some future point I’ll have to publicly justify them.

Ayo: What’s the best thing about being a crime writer?
Mo: The reaction you get from people at parties! It’s quite a showstopper to say “I write really violent crime novels.” It’s like a black hole appearing in the middle of the room – suddenly everything – all guests, small animals, and furniture are sucked in by the incredible fascination for violence.

Ayo: Has your writing style changed since you first started writing?
Mo: A little bit – I can still recognise my voice in Birdman, but Tokyo is quite a departure. The style in it seems to be l inked somehow to Tokyo, the city, because if you look at people like Susanna Jones (The Earthquake Bird) David Mitchell (Number 9 Dream) and Haruki Murakami (Wind up Bird Chronicles), they are all writing about Tokyo and they all have very hypnotic voices. You get a strong sense of this when you’re living in Tokyo, as if you’re existing outside reality.

Ayo: Do you have any plans to write another series?
Mo: I’ve got a new character – Okesy, a journalist on a cult magazine that exposes paranormal hoaxes, and I’ve got a tickly feeling he might have two books in him.

Ayo: I understand that you lecture as well? Has this had an effect on your writing and how do your students feel about having a crime writer as a lecturer?
Mo: I run a small workshop on the MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University, (a very good course) and take on one or two individual students a year. Some students are delighted to have a crime writer teaching them, some are dubious, feeling that the rules that apply to thriller writing can’t possibly be relevant to other genres. But generally, when I point out that all genres have some things in common; they tend to loosen up a bit. I think the ones who rebel the most are the ones who are writing rather experimentally – they get very frustrated when I try to impose at least the rudiments of a plot on their work. The chief way that teaching affects my work is that students quite often come to me with a piece of work or an idea that in some ways resembles something I’m already working on myself. Then I’m in a difficult position: do I declare my interest, or continue and potentially be accused of stealing from my students! As if anyone would stoop low enough to steal from their students, I hear you say? Ha! It is rumoured (note the caution of my phraseology: it is rumoured) that the LITERARY GREAT Jeffery Archer once judged a short story competition. The winning entry was so fabulous that a barely disguised version of it later appeared in a short story anthology. And who had ‘written’ that anthology? Who claimed the story as his own? You guessed it. The great Lord himself.

Ayo: What are you working on at the moment?
Mo: My Okesy book: The Devil of Pig Island. A hazy, poor quality video arrives at the hoax-busting magazine showing a naked half-human half-beast walking along a beach on a remote Scottish island. Also living on the island is a strange cult. The rumours are that they are involved in Satanism, that this creature is the devil, and that the cult has somehow conjured him down to earth. It’s Okesy’s job to disprove the claim that this is the devil. He succeeds in doing this, but there’s a lot of fun and dead pigs along the way.

Ayo: What do you think of the state of contemporary crime fiction writing today?
Mo: Very pared down to plot. Little characterisation, an emphasis on story story story. Demand for as much gore as possible and an extraordinarily long-lived fixation on the serial killer. Also a desire for psychological portraits of villains. All of which applies to my writing, which hey! Makes me really cutting edge.

Ayo: Is there a book out there that you would have liked to have written? Mo: Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. Or Being Jordan by Jordan.

Ayo: If you were planning a dinner party and could invite five crime fiction writers who would they be and why?
Mo: Patricia Highsmith back from the dead so we could talk about snails, Ruth Rendell because we went to the same unremarkable grammar school, and because she’d be thrilled to meet PH, Margaret Murphy, because she’s a mate, Val McDermid because, well, she’s the crime writing goddess. And Karin Slaughter since we’re quite chummy (now that she’s forgiven me for writing Birdman).

Ayo: How would you like to be remembered as an author?
Mo: As a boundary pushing, poetic, universally perceptive, historically important, humanitarian, philanthropic, creative genius. Just like Jeffery Archer, in fact!

Ayo: Thank you for the interview.

Books by Mo Hayder:-

Tokyo
The Treatment
Birdman

Further information about Mo Hayder can be found at:- http://www.mohayder.com