Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guest, best-selling author Michael Dobbs, author of fifteen novels, his latest being Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill. In addition to being an author, Michael has been an academic, a broadcaster, a senior corporate executive, and an adviser to Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Good day Michael and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

What do you think over the years has driven you as a writer? Was there anyone who really influenced you to become a writer?

Michael:

I began writing out of frustration with a book I was reading on holiday. I thought I could do better – much better. So I gave it a go. That book changed my life but the name of the author who inspired me must, I fear, remain a secret.

Norm:

How do you approach the work of writing?

Michael:

Writing is overwhelming, painful, exhilarating, exhausting, inspiring, terrifying. Yes, truly terrifying. I approach it always with a mixture of alarm and despondency – it’s going to be such hard work, and am I up to it? However, then I remember that it’s a huge privilege to be able to ask yourself at the start of each book – where do I want to go, what do I want to learn, who do I want to meet? An idea snaps on, rather like a light, and illuminates everything. And I’m off. Beats 9 to 5.

Norm:

In fiction as well as in non-fiction, writers very often take liberties with their material to tell a good story or to make a point. But how much is too much?

Michael:

Since I write historical fiction people often ask me if the events and characters I portray were really like that. I tell them that this is the question they should ask at the end of every book. A history book, whether fiction or not, should always inspire the thirst for more knowledge, and the reader must always decide for themselves, not take the answers for granted simply because someone else has written them down.

Norm:

What's the most difficult thing for you about being a writer?.

Michael: 1. Starting a book. 2. Waiting for the reviews. 3. Waiting for the royalty payment.

Norm:

You have written several books pertaining to Winston Churchill. What motivated you to write about him and which one of the Churchill books you have authored was the most rewarding?

Michael: 

I can’t pick and choose between the books. I am immensely proud of them all, a pride so intense that it makes me humble, because I don’t normally feel pride. I was brought to writing them when I discovered just how unsatisfactory many history books were. They miss the greatest motivating factor of all in history, the will of the individual, the passions, the fears, the love. Historians can’t deal with personalities and emotions very well, that’s what novelists do, and that’s why there is a huge role for fiction in helping others understand what really went on.

Norm:

Which one of your many occupations have you found the most rewarding and why?

Michael:

Writing. It seems that everything else I’ve done, from politics to academics to journalism and broadcasting, were merely a training ground for what I do now.

Norm:

Why do you believe the Guardian has called you “Westminster’s baby faced hit man.?”

Michael:

I once occupied a senior role in British politics when the country was at war with itself. My job was to help Margaret Thatcher wear the Labour Government down, to bring it to its knees, to kill it off. We did a pretty good job.

Norm:

Do you feel that writers, regardless of genre owe something to readers, if not, why not, if so, why and what would that be?

Michael:

Writing for others expands the mind and the emotions. Writing solely for oneself is, I suspect, quite the opposite, something that risks making you shrink. If no one reads me, then I would stop writing. I wouldn’t see any point to it.

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your books? Did you pitch them to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish these types of books? Any rejections?

Michael:

I wrote my first book purely as a test of myself, like climbing a mountain. I expected that when I reached the top I might find the view to be fun, but what I didn’t expect was for a large audience to applaud the effort. When publishers heard what I was doing (as Maggie Thatcher’s former chief of staff), they began calling me. That was when I realized I had better take it seriously or stop.

Norm:

In your most recent book, Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill, why and how did you go about creating the characters of Ruth Mueller and Donald Chichester?

Michael:

I needed to get inside Churchill’s mind, to probe the deep insecurities and those many dark places within. He would never share his emotions with another man, he wasn’t brought up like that, and I didn’t think that long and agonized conversations with himself would be particularly interesting, so I had to develop a mechanism through which he could express those fears. It had to be a woman, yet someone who was a stranger and not part of his life.

That’s where Ruth, a German refugee, came in. Donald Chichester was a reflection of the other side of war, not the high strategy of the Cabinet Room but the ordinary and often awful life of an ordinary soul caught up in the war at the sharp end. But he, too, like Churchill, had to have his doubts and inner dilemmas, so it seemed sensible to make him a Conscientious Objector. And it appealed to my sense of inverted justice to make a Conchie the hero of a war book.

Norm:

Can you explain some of your research techniques, and how you found sources for Never Surrender? As a follow up, what challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing this book? How did you overcome these challenges?

Michael:

I go to the personal records of those involved. Many of these were written down in the 40’s and 50’s as diaries and short memoirs, and even if they were published have been long out of print, but they bring home the passions of the moment far better than most history books. Much of the material came from records in the Imperial War Museum, but some were also obtained from second-hand booksellers.

A large part of Never Surrender was also based on the story of Airey Neave, a friend of mine who fought with the British Army at Calais and was captured there, spending the rest of the war in Colditz prison camp. He became a prosecutor at Nuremberg and a leading MP. He was killed by a terrorist bomb in 1979. One hell of a man.

Norm:

How can our readers find out more about you?

Michael:

My web site is a good starting point, www.michaeldobbs.com

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Michael:

I could talk for days about the pleasures and pains that writing brings. But at the end of the day the writing must speak for itself. – although I hope that only the pleasure and not the pain comes through to the reader. And, Norm, thanks for asking me.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Click Here to Read Norm's Review of Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill