{"id":180,"date":"2019-05-10T11:55:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T11:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/?p=180"},"modified":"2019-05-10T11:55:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T11:55:43","slug":"interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February 2019, Glasgow based author Graeme Macrae Burnet visited Edinburgh Napier to discuss his Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel His Bloody Project<\/em> (Saraband, 2015) with final-year students on Professor Anne Schwan\u2019s module \u201cCrime in Text & Film.\u201d Following the class, he was interviewed by English & Film student Calum Rosie.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Graeme Macrae Burnet (left) with Edinburgh Napier student Calum Rosie<\/p><\/div>\n

Introduction by Calum Rosie:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I sat down with author Graeme Macrae Burnet to discuss his novels, his influences, and his process. Burnet told me before the interview that there was only one question he didn\u2019t like being asked, but that he wasn\u2019t going to tell me what it was. Read on to find out if I ask it. Or rather, how soon I asked it, because of course I asked it.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I thought the first thing that I\u2019d ask you, is a general question about crime as a genre because three of your books are centred on\u2026 that is, that is the question\u2026?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yes.<\/p>\n

[both laugh]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah, brilliant. But no, it\u2019s a perfectly valid question, so just ask the question.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Just what is it that attracts you to that?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well first of all with regards to His Bloody Project<\/em>, although it\u2019s a novel about a crime, I don\u2019t really see it as a crime novel. I just see it as a novel and I think crime fiction tends to have a certain structure, whereby very conventionally there\u2019s a crime, a mystery, usually a murder and then there\u2019s a journey through the narrative, whereby somebody solves the crime and that forms the narrative arc called the book. His Bloody Project<\/em> isn\u2019t really like that because we know from the beginning that Roddy is guilty of the crimes. So yeah it\u2019s a crime novel in that it\u2019s about a crime, but I wasn\u2019t attracted to write that book for generic reasons; it was because I was very interested in the idea of somebody who has committed these very violent acts being able to write an articulate account of the events leading up to the murders, and as I was discussing earlier this idea from the French case of Pierre Rivi\u00e8re. My other two books, they are crime novels and they are certainly within the crime genre, but I think they kind of play a little bit with the expectations of the genre, the expectation generally being that when you get to the end of the book the crime will be solved.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And you will be returned as a reader to a sort of position of certainty and knowledge and to some extent neither of these two other books, The Accident on the A35 <\/em>and the Disappearance of Ad\u00e8le Bedeau<\/em>, really fulfil the expectation of the genre. What I\u2019m most interested in, in both these books and in His Bloody Project<\/em>, is the psychology of the characters. So in the Disappearance of Ad\u00e8le Bedeau<\/em> it\u2019s a disappearance first of all; it\u2019s not a crime. There is no crime.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah in the end there is no crime really at all.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah so it is a crime novel even though there\u2019s no crime in it; the central event is not a crime. And The<\/em> Accident on the A35<\/em> \u2013 it\u2019s an accident. But these events are a springboard for me to explore the characters who are involved in the events and that\u2019s what interests me most. I mean The Accident on the A35<\/em> has a structure just like a crime novel, and there are actually two investigations going on, one by the cop Georges Gorski and one by the son of the deceased, Raymond Barthelme, who are both trying to find out what happened on the night of the death of the father, so there\u2019s a crime novel structure and bizarrely it\u2019s not necessary for there to be a crime. So yeah I\u2019m kind of interested in generic expectations, but I think they are sometimes there to be played with as well. Sometimes really hard-core readers of crime fiction don\u2019t respond that well to my books, because they don\u2019t fulfil the normal expectations. They\u2019re just really slow. [laughs] Nothing happens.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Especially in The Accident on the A35<\/em> there\u2019s this subplot of the strangling in Strasbourg and in any other novel that would probably be the main thread.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yes, absolutely, I mean that\u2019s there to draw Gorski the cop in a certain direction, but that\u2019s a kind of dramatic crime novel murder but I\u2019m not really interested in it and we\u2019re not really interested in who committed that murder. It\u2019s there again because it takes Gorski into a sort of a subplot with the big cop Philippe Lambert from Strasbourg, where he feels out of depth and he gets into these scrapes, and goes to the sleazy bar you know, humiliates himself and misses a date with his wife. See I\u2019m more interested in Gorski\u2019s relationship with his wife than whether he solves this crime or not. So you\u2019re right it\u2019s very much a sub plot.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: You mentioned early on that the I, Pierre Rivi\u00e8re<\/em> dossier was sort of central. What did you think about the way Foucault and colleagues responded to it?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well I read the book in full back in 2012 and I didn\u2019t reopen it, because it did have a central role in His Bloody Project<\/em>, but I didn\u2019t want to replicate it. So my memory of the surrounding documents are pretty sketchy to be honest, but what I remember is the competing discourses trying to make sense or create meaning from, but basically to interpret this text from Pierre Rivi\u00e8re. What was the meaning of the text? What is the meaning of the text in relation to the murders? Does it change the nature of the murders because the murderer is capable of writing this account? Does it change it in a negative way or positive way?  My sort of overriding memory of the book was the dossier format of the book, and that\u2019s what had the influence on me, to create a book where there are different documents and the reader can kind of come to their own conclusions about what\u2019s been going on.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: How did you feel about the conclusion that I think in particular Foucault came to; he seemed like he was admiring Pierre in a way. At one point they almost try and compare crime to art. Do you think that is problematic in any way?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah well, Foucault was a very creative thinker I think. You know, I am a fan of his or at least some of his work, but I don\u2019t think you need to read Foucault and say \u201cWell this is what Foucault said, so Foucault\u2019s right\u201d. I think Foucault\u2019s a creative thinker, and sometimes he writes stuff and it makes you think. So if he compares a murder to a piece of art, that\u2019s an interesting thought. It doesn\u2019t mean that you have to endorse that thought, but what would it mean to think about a violent act in the same way you would the creation of a work of art. By having those thoughts it\u2019s stimulating, but you don\u2019t have to endorse the idea. Foucault wrote some pretty odd stuff. There\u2019s a thing in Discipline and Punish<\/em> about the scaffold and the spectacle and I think, sometimes it\u2019s better to say something reasonably extreme and seemingly black and white because it\u2019s interesting to say it. And if you hedge too much and qualify everything, you end up saying nothing. So in a way, Foucault is being a polemicist and that\u2019s probably why we are still reading him and talking about him. I mean I\u2019m not a fan of Freud; Freud was full of shit.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I\u2019d agree.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: But Freud was also an amazing creative mind and you could read him as literature and read him as a character and you know some of his later work, you know Civilisation and its Discontents<\/em> and so on. I find it really interesting, which doesn\u2019t mean I think it\u2019s the truth. I don\u2019t believe in the Oedipus complex but it\u2019s interesting to read that stuff as literature. So I feel pretty similarly with Foucault.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: So kind of following on from that, you mention the death of the author, interpretation as being key; was that one of the reasons that you, in your three books you\u2019ve kind of presented them as\u2026 in two of them, you\u2019re a translator, was that a way to distance yourself?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well, with the first book, The Disappearance of Ad\u00e8le Bedeau,<\/em> yes, I claim to be the translator, and the author of the book is Raymond Brunet, a French author who was born and brought up in Saint-Louis and wrote this autobiographical novel. And what happens is Raymond Brunet, he dies;, he commits suicide. So it is death of the author, in the book.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh, right I see.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: But yes, absolutely, it\u2019s a great question. So what we\u2019re doing there is, because the book, Ad\u00e8le Bedeau<\/em>, contains a short biography of the author, so I\u2019m kind of inviting the reader to play that game whereby they interpret the text in relation to the life of the author. Which is not the same as the intentions of the author; that\u2019s another strand of that very traditional approach to literature, biographical criticism. I\u2019m now making a yawning gesture! So yeah I\u2019m very much playing with the idea of interpreting the text in relation to the life of the author by presenting this fictional author and, when the book came out in 2014, I was obviously completely unknown and the book came out with no fanfare, small publisher. And I went down to London to sign some copies in shops, and the booksellers there, they all thought it was a French novel, written by Raymond Brunet.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh really?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: So when I went into a small bookshop in Primrose Hill and the manager greeted me with the words \u201cAh, the translator!\u201d<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughing]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I was like \u201cEh, yeah, haha.\u201d And he was like \u201cYes, isn\u2019t it amazing how the life of the author paralleled the life of the characters in the book?\u201d<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh dear.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And I suddenly realised that, you know, there\u2019s no reason for people to disbelieve this. I hadn\u2019t intended to trick anybody, but people felt that they had been tricked. And that\u2019s really interesting because, when we read a novel, we are tricking ourselves. We are engaging with a fictional character. We\u2019ve been having a conversation about Roddy Macrae and whether we empathise with him; we follow his journey. He\u2019s not real.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And you know, His Bloody Project <\/em>is kind of the opposite of these other two books in the sense that I present it as a real case, and I go to great lengths to make it seem real, and probably fifty percent of readers think it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: My mum did, actually.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I spoke to her last night saying I was going to do this, and she said \u201cOh yeah, cos he wrote about the thing that happened,\u201d and I was like \u201cOh no, it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d And she got really annoyed actually.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah!<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: She was like \u201cSo he lied about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yes!<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: And I thought, in as much as anyone who\u2019s ever written any story ever, yeah I suppose he did. [laughs]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: But that conversation is exactly the conversation I\u2019ve had about… \u201cSo it\u2019s a lie?\u201d All fiction is a lie. And I\u2019m drawing attention to that by presenting my fiction as non-fiction. People sometimes react just like that, as your mum, they\u2019re annoyed. They feel like they\u2019ve been duped. And it\u2019s made me reflect on what we\u2019re doing when we read fiction, and the relationship between fiction and non-fiction, and I find it all very interesting.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I was wondering what, was that part of the reason, because both of your fictionalised authors share one of your names, or similar in a way, because there\u2019s Roddy Macrae–<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Oh yeah.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: And Brunet which is very similar to…<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well it\u2019s an anagram. Sorry, is it deliberate?<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah, was that kind of…?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well, with Raymond Brunet it\u2019s a deliberately obvious anagram. And yet, because of the French pronunciation, Brunet sounds quite different from Burnet. There are only two letters swapped around, but Brunet is a very easy French name. So, surprisingly, most people don\u2019t notice. So that was, you know, an anagram making it obvious that this is fiction, and he\u2019s also me, sort of thing. With Roddy Macrae, the set up at the beginning of the book is that I\u2019m looking for some historical, some family historical records of my grandfather, whose name was Macrae, so it would be logical that within that, I would come across a document by another Macrae. So that was really the reason, I wasn\u2019t trying to, you know he\u2019s not my doppelg\u00e4nger<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Did you ever consider passing Roderick off as a member of your family, or were you a bit reluctant to?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well I did, actually; originally, my intention was that the book, because Roddy\u2019s mother in the book dies of childbirth and the offspring from that birth was taken away and taken care of by extended family in Toscaig. It\u2019s alright, nobody remembers that.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughs]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: So I was going to pretend that I was the offspring of this other son, so Roddy would have then have been my great-great-great-great uncle, I think. But I decided, A) it wouldn\u2019t have added anything to the book and B) I would have had to ask everybody in my family, \u201cWould you mind if I create this character who is a triple-murderer, from the same part of the country as us, and then say he\u2019s actually part of our family?\u201d And I couldn\u2019t, as I say it wouldn\u2019t have added anything to the book so there was no point. But funnily enough though yes, I did think about it. [laughs]<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I actually know some Macraes from up sort of Inverness way.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Oh yeah? Oh right, well it\u2019s certainly a pretty common name; you know Wester Ross where my mum\u2019s from, Macrae and Mackenzie are the biggest names. There are so many Mackenzies up there. But I think that\u2019s why there are so many nicknames, to differentiate between different–<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Of course.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: You know, there\u2019s no point saying \u201cRoddy Macrae\u201d because there are so many Macraes. I mean if I\u2019d been really realistic in the book, there would have been more Macraes and Mackenzies. But in a novel you can\u2019t do that, because you\u2019ve got to differentiate people by name.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: And on the subject of that actually, you write a lot about, small, kind of provincial towns. Do you have any sort of experience with that, or is there a reason, or has it just happened to…?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: [laughs] Well, I mean I come from Kilmarnock, which I guess is a small provincial town, and when I was growing up I certainly had a strong desire to leave Kilmarnock. And it\u2019s nothing against Kilmarnock, particularly; I think I would have felt that way whether I\u2019d been in Motherwell, Hamilton, Ayr, Dunfermline, Inverness or wherever. It was a desire, which I think is a positive thing as a teenager, to go elsewhere. And so Saint-Louis, the small town in the French novels is a real place. And I just happened to visit there, around 2000, and I went to the restaurant in the novel, and I had lunch.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh really?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And that\u2019s where the novel arose from that moment of inspiration, observing what was going on around me, the sense of routine, the sense of a very unremarkable town. The feeling that if you grew up there you would have this desire to escape, so in some ways I was projecting my own feelings onto this other place. I mean the way I\u2019ve written about Saint-Louis is really unfair! [laughs] Because I\u2019m very rude about that town.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: But I think you say in the afterword that it\u2019s not justified; you kind of bring it back.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well spotted! I did, because when I wrote the second book, I went back to do some research, and the first couple of times I\u2019d been to Saint-Louis, it was the middle of winter and it was really grey and horrible. And when I went back to do research for The Accident on the A35<\/em>,  it was June, and it was 35 degrees, and there was blossom on all the trees and it was sunny, and people were sitting outside, and actually the town seems quite nice. But because I was written within the persona of Raymond Brunet, who was himself trapped in the town, I couldn\u2019t then suddenly be nice about the town. Hence in the afterword to The Accident<\/em>, I say \u201cSaint-Louis is by no means as unpleasant Raymond Brunet says it is!\u201d And I\u2019m really glad I wrote that because, bizarrely, there\u2019s a literary festival in Saint-Louis.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh really?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And because it\u2019s a fake translation into English, the book\u2019s now been translated into French. Or back into its original language.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughs]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And actually, so The Disappearance of Ad\u00e8le Bedeau<\/em> has come out in France; I think there seems to be quite a lot of curiosity about why some Scottish guy wrote this book, which is very heavily influenced by Georges Simenon. So the books actually had quite a lot of attention in France, and I\u2019m going to go to the festival to appear and answer for why I\u2019ve been so rude about this town. So that will be an interesting experience.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Just take a couple of pages where you\u2019ve said nice things about them.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yes absolutely, I\u2019ll get it on a t-shirt: \u201cI love Saint-Louis.\u201d<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah that\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I\u2019ve probably done something for their tourist industry.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh I\u2019d think so, yeah. I\u2019d go there.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I think, just to back to your actual question, I have a fascination with slightly unremarkable places, and I think when you\u2019re an outsider in a place, as writer, that\u2019s a far more productive experience. If I\u2019m in a bar in Glasgow, I\u2019m with my friends; if I walk around Glasgow, I don\u2019t notice anything. But when you\u2019re alone, abroad, maybe your grasp of the language isn\u2019t great, so that\u2019s kind of filtered out, I find that your powers of observation are much more heightened. And actually when I went back to the research for The Accident<\/em>, this was an act of deliberate observation. If you sit in a bar, or a cafe or in a park for an hour, without your phone, without a book, without a newspaper, that\u2019s actually quite a long time, and you see stuff. And stuff that I observed went straight into the book, and helped to shape the texture of the book, so I think people think it\u2019s very odd, and it is odd, to have written two books about this town in France, not being French myself, but it\u2019s that feeling of outsider-ness, which I think is really important for writers.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: So was Saint-Louis one of the inspirations for the story or was it just a place that happened to fit?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: No I went there, I went for lunch in what becomes in the book the Restaurant de la Cloche. The original idea for the book would be that it would be entirely set in the Restaurant de la Cloche. That was too restrictive. So when I was there, there was a character who was in the restaurant, very traditional French bistro, everybody goes there for their lunch, you know office workers, people from the building site, just go in and have a three course meal and a glass of wine. Love France for that! And there was a guy at the bar, and he was wearing a suit and looked ill at ease, and uncomfortable, and I felt, he comes here every day, and these other people come here every day and they never speak to each other. There\u2019s all these unspoken tensions. I wrote a sketch of the scene; this was about fifteen years ago, and it always stayed with me. And all I did, I took that, I started writing. I created the character of Ad\u00e8le Bedeau, who\u2019s the waitress in the restaurant, and then she disappears, and that\u2019s the springboard event to examine the lives of the characters. And I knew nothing more, when I started writing, than that. So I just built it up as one event begets another, and then you find the characters. I knew who the character of Manfred Baumann was from the beginning, because I share some of his neuroses.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Not all of them I hope.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Not all of them yes, just to be clear!<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I\u2019ll put that in the official record. So what is it that made you want to start really writing it, as opposed to, I think you said you worked in television for a while?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well I\u2019d been writing since I was a student at Glasgow University, off and on, short stories. I\u2019d finished writing what I would call a straight crime novel, in the nineties. It was set in a version of Kilmarnock and it was called Hard Rain. <\/em>You know, proper crime novel title. But you know, I finished it and that\u2019s an achievement. You know, get to the end. It\u2019s easy to start. And then in the interim, I\u2019d started about three or four other novels and got to maybe thirty-thousand words or something, and given up. And somehow this scene in this French town has just stayed with me. I mean, it was definitely ten years between starting to write the novel and being there. So, I remembered it, utterly crystal clear, but when I went back to the place, ten, twelve years later, it was exactly as I remembered it, and I had this feeling that nothing ever changed there, and what I loved was when I went back twelve years later, I had exactly the same lunch. The menu hadn\u2019t changed!<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh wow, yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: So you know, I went back to it because it stuck in my mind, and I\u2019d had these failures, if you want to call it that, or unfinished novels, and I played a little trick on myself. Actually I got made redundant from my TV job, which was good.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I just got made redundant recently actually.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Oh congratulations. That\u2019s a good life experience. And I thought right, time to write a novel Graeme, get on with it, and for some reason I plomped on that. And I told myself I was writing a short story. Just a little mind-trick. It\u2019s like \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be a novel. It could be twenty-thousand words; it could be a novella.\u201d And because I read a lot of Simenon and other European crime fiction, and a lot of that stuff is maybe fifty-thousand words. There\u2019s a much bigger tradition of the short, very brief crime novel. So I was kind of aiming for fifty-, sixty-thousand words, which is a more attainable goal than eighty-, a hundred-thousand words, especially when you\u2019re starting. Maybe you\u2019re writing yourself?<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: A bit, yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I kind of played a trick. I loved the world of the book, you know; I loved it. And I found it very easy to write the character of Manfred Baumann. I struggled with narrative; I still struggle with narrative, but I enjoyed the milieu, and that\u2019s why I wrote the second book, because I wanted to go back to that milieu, and just be in it again.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Are you planning to go back to it?<\/p>\n

GM<\/strong>B: There will be one final book featuring Georges Gorski. If you remember at the beginning of The Accident<\/em>, two manuscripts are delivered to the offices of the publisher.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh, of course!<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: But I\u2019m not interested in writing a series. Publishers loves series. You know I killed the author. Sometimes the big mistake of crime writers is to kill off their character, but I actually killed the author of the books. So there was a certain amount of contrivance in writing the other book, but again The Accident <\/em>is far more of Raymond Brunet\u2019s book, because it was about the death of his father, and he is writing a fictionalised account of this fictional event. Then I\u2019m inviting the reader again to interpret how much of what\u2019s in the novel was \u201ctrue\u201d to Raymond Brunet\u2019s actual biography which is, of course, also fiction. I have real trouble explaining this.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: It makes sense when you read it, yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: So that\u2019s all fun. And I think that it adds a little layer. Some readers find it a little bit unnecessary, pretentious, but that\u2019s fine, you don\u2019t need to read it and I enjoy it and I think it\u2019s fun, and as a reader it\u2019s the sort of thing I would like.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah, definitely. Because when you\u2019re reading, and I think you mentioned this earlier, you don\u2019t want to fall into the trap of \u201cWhat\u2019s the author trying to say; how much of this is true?\u201d. These kinds of books almost let you do that, without doing it, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well, you\u2019re invited to relate the text to the life of Brunet. And you used the phrase \u2013 you asked me earlier if I was kind of stepping back. And I suppose yes, absolutely, all the books I\u2019ve written so far, the text has been presented as having been written by somebody other than me. And to let you into a secret, without having thought it through, I\u2019m doing the same with my current book. So obviously there was something going on there. Obviously I\u2019m a really shy, anti-social person.<\/p>\n

CR: [laughs] Maybe that\u2019s it, yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: But again, as we were discussing in the class, you don\u2019t necessarily analyse everything before you do it, or do it for a rational reason. Sometimes you just do stuff because it appeals to you, or you\u2019re going with the flow, then afterwards people expect you to have a rational explanation, and that\u2019s not the way I work.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I guess we\u2019re taught as students to always assume that there is a reason, but there often isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well, if you talk to twenty different writers, you\u2019ll get twenty different answers, in terms of to what extent. Some writers set out to \u201cexplore a theme.\u201d [he makes a vomit face].<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughs]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And that\u2019s not the way I do it. I hate the word \u201ctheme,\u201d but that\u2019s something that can come out as a matter of interpretation after the text is in existence. I think for me, if I wanted to explore a theme, then I would create characters who represent different aspects around that, and my fear would be that it would be schematic, and I wouldn\u2019t have those moments where I feel emotional engagement with the character. Because I think when we read novels, and I think it\u2019s amazing that we are still reading novels in the world we\u2019re in, I think people predominantly read novels because of character, and it\u2019s character that draws people into the narrative and makes people care about the book. And so you can have all the intellectual ideas you want, but if you\u2019re not engaging a reader on the level of character, or on the level of story maybe, then nobody\u2019s going to finish the book. So I kind of approach it form the bottom up and if there are interesting conversations to be had afterwards, you know it\u2019s like \u201coh yeah yeah, I see what you mean. Oh providence, yes!\u201d<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah of course, yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: But sometimes an idea will arise during the writing of the book, like the idea of providence that we were discussing earlier. And you might see it reappearing in some way and you might draw that out a little bit, I would say. But I don\u2019t want to start by thinking I want to push something, on a rational, intellectual level. I want, first and foremost, very old fashioned, I want emotional engagement.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: So can you tell if you\u2019re reading another book, can you be like \u201cOh I see they\u2019re trying to talk about the issues\u201d?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well I mean yeah, it\u2019s called bad writing.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughs]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I mean a really obvious way that you might come across that is if you feel that the author is putting words into the mouth of their character, they\u2019re making a little speech about something, and you feel that it\u2019s not motivated by the character. So yes, I would say that I can tell. And I think that most people could. You know, I\u2019m a reader, just like you\u2019re a reader, just like anybody who reads novels is a reader. Maybe as a writer I\u2019m a bit more aware of the techniques that people use. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s true, but I think the last thing I want from a novel, or any piece of art, is to feel that the creator of that work is hitting me over the head with making their meaning overly obvious. I love Georges Simenon because Simenon never judges his character. He describes the action and locations, but it\u2019s very much for you to make up your own mind. But if you read somebody like Emile Zola, you\u2019re always aware of what Emile Zola thinks of his characters\u2019 behaviour.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [makes a scoffing noise to pretend he knows about the writing style of Emile Zola]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: He\u2019s a moralist. And he writes in terms where he will be condemning of their vulgar, depraved behaviour. I mean I like Emile Zola, it\u2019s great stuff, but there\u2019s a difference; you can see that Zola, the moralist, had a moral drive in his books that Simenon doesn\u2019t. So I prefer the Simenon method.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: You see that kind of moralism a lot? Do you ever read or watch any true crime stuff?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well, I used to read quite a lot of true crime. But I think with non-fiction it\u2019s slightly different. It just depends on the writer. I mean I like reading non-fiction and I would like to write a non-fiction book one day. An actual non-fiction book.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Do you think people would say \u201cHang on, is this one actually real, or…?\u201d?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Well, that would be really fun though, wouldn\u2019t it? I was reading this little book by a philosopher; I’m not a big philosophy reader, but I was reading this book about suicide, and he tells this story about this 14th century Italian guy who\u2019d written a treatise on suicide. And because of my way of thinking, I was like \u201cI wonder if he\u2019s just made this guy up.\u201d I could go and google him, and with His Bloody Project<\/em>, many people have googled characters in the case. And in fact, with the French books, people go away and google Raymond Brunet, the author. And what\u2019s bizarre is, a friend of mine made a trailer for the alleged film.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh really?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Which is online. So that muddies the waters even further.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: That\u2019s really funny.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: The trailer is obviously fake, but it\u2019s very well done. So yeah look it up.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I will do; that\u2019s really cool. Do you have any tips for anybody who wants to get into writing?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yes. Stay the fuck away from all these books about creative writing. Stay away from the tips. I see a lot of it on social media, and I totally understand when you\u2019re beginning. I\u2019ve been there, but I think these endless lists of tips for writers, they drive me up the wall. I mean I avert my eyes. Because once you\u2019ve read them, you can\u2019t unread them. They stick in your mind, \u201cDo this, do that, do it this way, don\u2019t do it that way.\u201d I\u2019d say: read a lot, re-read. It\u2019s much better to know one book well than to have read ten books in a superficial way. And there\u2019s no substitute for the actual writing. I get asked at every event I do, at the end, someone asks, and I can see them, they\u2019re shuffling all shy, and I say \u201cAw are you a writer; do you write?\u201d \u201cAw yeah a bit, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughs] Exactly what I said a minute ago.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah, totally. And I understand that, we\u2019re Scottish! And I say \u201cWhat are you working on?\u201d And they say: \u201cOh I haven\u2019t started, I\u2019ve just been thinking about this,\u201d often for thirty years. And I\u2019m like \u201cGo home and tomorrow, write a thousand words.\u201d Because if you can\u2019t do it, you can\u2019t do it. There is no substitute. A lot of people who are \u201cstuck,\u201d they say they have a desire to write; they\u2019re the ones reading the books on creative writing. I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s no place for that sort of stuff, but on the other hand, I was forty-six before I published a novel. So a lot of people go \u201cOh my god, that\u2019s ancient.\u201d It\u2019s actually about average. So you have to find your own way, absolutely, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m sceptical about prescriptions about how you should write. I mean I have my own proscriptions, or prescriptions, about how I go about stuff. I\u2019m very, very strict on point of view. I will never violate point of view in my novels.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: And that\u2019s me. I\u2019ve just read Jacqueline Susann\u2019s Valley of the Dolls<\/em>. Wow! It\u2019s amazing; one of the biggest selling novels of the twentieth century. It\u2019s a real door-stopper, pulp fiction kind of story, but it\u2019s amazing. And she doesn\u2019t care about point of view. She can enter the head of any character at any point. So that\u2019s fine, but if you set up the rules, you\u2019ve got to follow the rules.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah, because in yours, it\u2019s Gorski, plus Manfred.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: So you never know what any other character is thinking because we only ever see them through either Gorski or Manfred\u2019s eyes. So I use the phrase \u201cas if\u201d a lot. Because, \u201cas if they were doing,\u201d because we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Oh right, yeah.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: So yeah. But you just got to be doing some writing. Write stuff, throw it away. Be prepared to throw a lot away. I mean people say \u201cOh, I\u2019d like to see that earlier novel you wrote\u201d and I\u2019m like \u201cYeah, no chance.\u201d But it was a great learning experience.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: And you\u2019ve got a new one in the pipeline?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I\u2019m working; I\u2019m getting towards the end of the first draft.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Okay so a wee while yet.<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Yeah, 2020 at the earliest. But yeah I just want to make sure it\u2019s as good as it can be. It\u2019s a struggle. But I always struggle; I struggle with narrative. Putting things in the right order seems simple, but it\u2019s difficult for me.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: I guess then my last question is, if someone were planning to write an essay at university on His Bloody Project<\/em>, where would you recommend they start?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: I would say, read the text. The book is the text, that\u2019s all that matters. Don\u2019t listen to interviews with the author.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: [laughs]<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: Everything required to write an essay about any book is the book. If you\u2019re writing an academic essay, you are required to read and cite previous sources, that\u2019s the game, that\u2019s fine. I don\u2019t know how much, if anything, has been written about His Bloody Project<\/em>. But I\u2019m a big fan of primary sources as well, as a researcher. So I would say it\u2019s more important to go and read articles about James Bruce Thompson, or go and look at some documents relating to some real life murder cases. Read the style of writing that was prevalent at the time. Read about the history, the way of life at the time. I would say reading around the subject raised by the book. There probably isn\u2019t much criticism. You\u2019ll know better than me if there is any. I mean the novel\u2019s only three years old.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Yeah that\u2019s the difficulty with writing about recent things.<\/p>\n

GM<\/strong>B: You should see it not as a difficulty but as being a liberation; you don\u2019t have F. R. Leavis looking over your shoulder. Or another hefty literary critic. You can just come to your own view.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: When you were a researcher, did you ever have difficulty in deciding when the research stopped? And finding the balance there?<\/p>\n

GMB<\/strong>: That is a difficulty. I read a novel relatively recently where the person included far too much of their research in their novel, where it was completely not motivated by the story or the characters. So it\u2019s like, yeah you\u2019ve done your research, you\u2019re just showing it off. I tried to be careful with that in His Bloody Project.<\/em> For example, earlier I was talking about these superstitions I came across in research. Absolutely fascinating and anybody you talk to, they go \u201cWow, that\u2019s amazing,\u201d and I\u2019d written bits where I\u2019d contrived use of those superstitions; I\u2019d sort of shoe-horned them into the story. And I read it back over and I knew I\u2019d only written it in because I\u2019d done the research, and that\u2019s the wrong way round. So you have to start writing at some point. The thing I\u2019m writing at the moment is set in 1960s London. I could do endless research, but I\u2019m at the point now where I\u2019ve been writing and my research will be more of the kind of, not fact-checking, but I just need to find a little bit. It\u2019s a very directed research, rather than general finding out about the milieu, kind of research. So it\u2019s a bit of back and forth.<\/p>\n

CR<\/strong>: Thank you very much, Graeme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February 2019, Glasgow based author Graeme Macrae Burnet visited Edinburgh Napier to discuss his Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel His Bloody Project (Saraband, 2015) with final-year students on Professor Anne Schwan\u2019s module \u201cCrime in Text & Film.\u201d Following the class, he was interviewed by English & Film student Calum Rosie. Introduction by Calum Rosie: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-graeme-macrae-burnet","post-preview"],"yoast_head":"\nInterview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet - English at Edinburgh Napier University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet - English at Edinburgh Napier University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In February 2019, Glasgow based author Graeme Macrae Burnet visited Edinburgh Napier to discuss his Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel His Bloody Project (Saraband, 2015) with final-year students on Professor Anne Schwan\u2019s module \u201cCrime in Text & Film.\u201d Following the class, he was interviewed by English & Film student Calum Rosie. Introduction by Calum Rosie: […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"English at Edinburgh Napier University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-10T11:55:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-05-10T11:55:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2019\/05\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474-169x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"anneschwan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"anneschwan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"34 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"anneschwan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c23d7fe18b0ccaec06a65336bd88fad9\"},\"headline\":\"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-10T11:55:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-10T11:55:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":6716,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474-169x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Graeme Macrae Burnet;\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/\",\"name\":\"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet - English at Edinburgh Napier University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474-169x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-10T11:55:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-10T11:55:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c23d7fe18b0ccaec06a65336bd88fad9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474.jpg\",\"width\":2988,\"height\":5312,\"caption\":\"Graeme Macrae Burnet (left) with Edinburgh Napier student Calum Rosie\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/\",\"name\":\"English at Edinburgh Napier University\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c23d7fe18b0ccaec06a65336bd88fad9\",\"name\":\"anneschwan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3d50d90d6b13b663c3070b408612f7f9feac42a5c2a8e15796bc73ddf3144ac6?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3d50d90d6b13b663c3070b408612f7f9feac42a5c2a8e15796bc73ddf3144ac6?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3d50d90d6b13b663c3070b408612f7f9feac42a5c2a8e15796bc73ddf3144ac6?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"anneschwan\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/author\\\/anneschwan\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet - English at Edinburgh Napier University","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet - English at Edinburgh Napier University","og_description":"In February 2019, Glasgow based author Graeme Macrae Burnet visited Edinburgh Napier to discuss his Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel His Bloody Project (Saraband, 2015) with final-year students on Professor Anne Schwan\u2019s module \u201cCrime in Text & Film.\u201d Following the class, he was interviewed by English & Film student Calum Rosie. Introduction by Calum Rosie: […]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/","og_site_name":"English at Edinburgh Napier University","article_published_time":"2019-05-10T11:55:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-05-10T11:55:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2019\/05\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474-169x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"anneschwan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"anneschwan","Estimated reading time":"34 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/"},"author":{"name":"anneschwan","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/c23d7fe18b0ccaec06a65336bd88fad9"},"headline":"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet","datePublished":"2019-05-10T11:55:41+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-10T11:55:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/"},"wordCount":6716,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2019\/05\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474-169x300.jpg","keywords":["Graeme Macrae Burnet;"],"articleSection":["Uncategorized"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/","name":"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet - English at Edinburgh Napier University","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2019\/05\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474-169x300.jpg","datePublished":"2019-05-10T11:55:41+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-10T11:55:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/c23d7fe18b0ccaec06a65336bd88fad9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2019\/05\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2019\/05\/gmb-and-calum-rosie-photo-e1557487759474.jpg","width":2988,"height":5312,"caption":"Graeme Macrae Burnet (left) with Edinburgh Napier student Calum Rosie"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/interview-with-man-booker-prize-shortlisted-author-graeme-macrae-burnet\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interview with Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Author Graeme Macrae Burnet"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/","name":"English at Edinburgh Napier University","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/c23d7fe18b0ccaec06a65336bd88fad9","name":"anneschwan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d50d90d6b13b663c3070b408612f7f9feac42a5c2a8e15796bc73ddf3144ac6?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d50d90d6b13b663c3070b408612f7f9feac42a5c2a8e15796bc73ddf3144ac6?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d50d90d6b13b663c3070b408612f7f9feac42a5c2a8e15796bc73ddf3144ac6?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"anneschwan"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/author\/anneschwan\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}