Paul Finch

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Countdown with ...

Paul Finch

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now turned full-time writer. He started out writing episodes of the British TV crime drama, The Bill, and has written extensively in the field of children’s animation and for Dr Who. However, he is probably best known for his work in thrillers, crime and horror. His best-known work to date is the five-novel DS Heckenburg crime series. Paul lives in Lancashire with his wife Cathy and his children, Eleanor and Harry.

Interviewed 17 September 2016

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

Daunting
Dispiriting
Wearying
Depressing
Exciting
Thrilling
Fascinating
Energising
Inspiring
Rewarding

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

My lovely wife, Cathy
Buck, our handsome, black-eared springer spaniel
Buddy, our playful, brown-eared springer spaniel
The high, rolling wilderness of Anglezark moor
The towering outline of Winter Hill telecommunications mast
A magnificent original painting of Lake Windermere by Anne Blundell
A magnificent original painting of St Ives by Anne Blundell
Our ancient rocking chair (of which I’m deeply possessive)
A blown-up photograph of our children, Eleanor and Harry, as delightful.toddlers (not as the stroppy 20-somethings they are now)

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

A bacon and egg barmcake (or maybe two)

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

James Ellroy
William Peter Blatty
Alice Cooper
Jimmy Page
Martin Scorsese
Ridley Scott
Anatole Krasnyansky (fabulous painter)

Six things you can't live without ...

My laptop (so I can work anywhere, at any time)
My Dictaphone (for the same reason above)
Access to rock music (in some shape or form)
My passport (I love to travel abroad)
A set of wheels (walking is great, but I couldn’t stand having no car)
My Encyclopaedia of Mysterious Britain (because there is no end to the strangeness of our own country)

Five favourite words ...

Procrastinate (which I do too much)
Divine (the breath of which I sometimes feel if things are going really well)
Monstrosity (because it suggests something so weird that it has no form)
Eerie (because I have an unhealthy fascination for situations to which this word applies)
Perilous (because situations in my books are never merely dangerous)

Four places you'd run away to ...

Borrowdale, the Lake District.
Honnigsvag, northern Norway
Grafton, Vermont
Cap Ferrat, Provence

Three books you've bought recently ...

White Bones – Graham Masterton
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Alan Sillitoe
The Black Corridor – Michael Moorcock

Two things that make you rant ...

Cheeky teenagers
Our regularly inaccurate weather forecasts

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Make sure you woo Cathy just the way I did. It’s the one decision in your life you’ll never regret.