CJ Carver

Countdown with ...

C.J. Carver

CJ Carver is a half-English, half-Kiwi author who now lives just outside Bath. She lived in Australia for ten years before taking up long-distance rally driving – she has driven London to Saigon, London to Cape Town, and completed 14,500 miles on the Inca Trail.

Since then she has written nine novels that have been published in the UK and the US as well as being translated into several languages. CJ’s first novel Blood Junction won the CWA Debut Dagger and was short-listed for the USA Barry Award for best crime fiction novel of the year. Spare Me the Truth, the first in the Forrester and Davies series, was shortlisted for the 2017 Ngaio Marsh best crime novel award.

CJ is a co-founder and one of the first judges for the Women’s World Car of the Year award. She has also worked as a travel writer.

Interviewed 06 January 2018

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

A rollercoaster ride of success, failure, fright and sheer delight.

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

An ostrich egg, a herb garden, a Star Wars Death Star kitchen timer, an onyx Buddha head, a tray of pens, a Cap Ferret snow globe, a poster of Rocamadour, a Royal Air Force officer and a lava lamp.

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

Spaghetti tossed with tomatoes, garlic, capers, olives, anchovies and chilli.

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

Robyn Davidson of Tracks fame, Scott of the Antarctic (you didn’t say they had to be alive), Bruce Parry, Professor Steve Peters (author of the Chimp Paradox, a life-changing book), Germaine Greer, Steve Callahan (who survived 76 days lost at sea), Ellen MacArthur.

Six things you can't live without ...

Walking, travelling, chilli, breakfast tea, laughter, my husband.

Five favourite words ...

Ergasiophobia (a fear of work), love, scamper, freedom, joy.

Four places you'd run away to ...

Scotland, the Seychelles, Norway, Norfolk.

Three books you've bought recently ...

The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère, the true story of monstrous deception. Awakening by Sharon Bolton. No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by Graham Bowley.

Two things that make you rant ...

Human trafficking, injustice.

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

Stick with the running. You’ll need it one day.