Fast Fiction: Art Of Biography
Authors seem to be tripping over one another in their eagerness to write the biography of a villain, as Richard Mallinson recounts.
‘You really must meet her,’ said Jimmy Pule over lunch at the club.
Jimmy was in publishing and absurdly prosperous.
‘Oh, yes,’ I said, ‘and what’s her name?’
‘Rose,’ he said. ‘Rose Green.’
Ah, Rose Green. I didn’t mention that ten years ago I’d been in love with her and we’d lived together until she -
I merely said, ‘Tell me more.’
‘She’s written a book, due out next month.’
‘Written a book?’
‘Yes, about a villain named Brig Slant. He was killed last year in that drugs affair. Rose has done a biography of him.’
‘She’s done what?’ I yelled into my wine.
*
A few weeks later an old friend of mine. Alek Rudd, said, ‘There’s no way I can earn a living writing poetry. That’s why I work as a hospital porter - it pays the rent.’
We were in a London pub, drinking lager.
‘You should do what C Day-Lewis did,’ I said.
‘Why, what did he do?’ asked Alec, petulantly.
‘He wrote crime fiction in order to earn money so that he could give up teaching and write poetry.’
‘Actually, I’m more interested in true-life crime,’ said Alek.
He looked around, sipped his lager and went on, ‘Did you see my piece about Brig Slant in the Guardian the other day? I’m going to do a biography of him.’
Damn it. What could I say?
