It's been at least thirty years since I started to write Remote Control. I saw in the Bookseller a little notice that a new literary agency called International Scripts was being set up and sent them a letter. Then I sent them some of Alma Mater and then I got a contract sent back. Soon enough I was on the night train to London to see a literary agent. Nothing to do with agents was ever as easy as this again!
It was Ursula Mackenzie's first job in publishing. God alone knows what she made of me, but after chatting in her none to salubrious office, she took me for lunch during which I probably drank about five pints of Guinness as I recall. Outside on the pavement as I was saying my goodbyes and heading back for the train, I offered her a little piece of cannabis and she politely refused. You've got to laugh! Just tell your kids to say no and you'll end up being a master of the universe instead of getting the one way ticket to Palooka-ville.
She told me I should try and write a political thriller and advised me to read Scotch on the Rocks, a book by Douglas Hurd. I thought this book was so bad it was almost inspirational!
At this point I went to Strathclyde University to do a post-grad in librarianship and ended up doing a bibliography project on the public sources for information that would help you make a remote controlled explosive device. This was actually quite an interesting thing to do in the days before the internet. I got a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook, an interlibrary loan from my local library. Well, I doubt if the local library would help you with research like that these days!
I went to the National Library and researched back copies of the newspapers till I found information on the Angry Brigade, complete with diagrams of how to make bombs. So I ended up with my flat strewn with diagrams and what have you about how to make a remote controlled bomb, and I think these days you can go to jail for being in possession of that kind of thing.
The book I ended up with after that was pretty lousy, but Ursula Mackenzie did try to sell it before she went on to better things.
I adapted the book for the stage and brought in another character, so I realised I'd have to re-write the book. Scotch on the Rocks was a masterpiece compared to what I'd written at the time!! Once it was re-written, I hardly sent it out to anyone because I went to live in Australia for a year. Most of the stuff I wrote I only sent out three or four times anyway because I hate rejections and usually didn't have much money to waste on the postage.
I re-wrote the book again in 2009 and changed one of the characters, added a twist to the storyline and that's the version that's been placed on Kindle by the consigliere just yesterday. Remote Control is a steal at £1.82!
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