Almost every officer is going to put their life on the line at some point in their career. Peter James More Quotes by Peter James More Quotes From Peter James My day starts with Radio 4's Today live or 'listen again' wherever I am in the world, thanks to digital radio - I even have an app on my iPhone that receives it. Peter James iphone radio world I get asked to read new works a lot, in the hope that I will give a quotation and I will only give a 'puff' for a book I truly love. Peter James new-work giving book Branson ate his salad, and left the rest of his fish untouched, while Grace tucked into his steak and kidney pudding with relish. 'I read a while ago,' he told Branson, 'that the French drink more red wine than the English but live longer. The Japanese eat more fish than the English but drink less wine and live longer. The Germans eat more red meat than the English, and drink more beer and they live longer too. You know the moral of this story? 'No' 'It's not what you eat or drink - it's speaking English that kills you. Peter James wine grace beer I guess a lot of police keep their sanity by developing black humour. Peter James sanity police black Women are afraid of walking at night, that someone pulls them into an alley and rapes them. That almost never happens. I mean, 98% of people who are raped, are raped by somebody they know. Somebody goes too far. But the destruction is just the same. Peter James night mean people Every novel starts with a theme, and I am constantly looking for big ideas. Peter James theme bigs ideas Brighton has two universities. It's got a massive young, middle-class community, and the largest gay community in the UK. The result of which is a huge recreational drug market. It's the favoured place to live in the UK for first division criminals. Peter James gay class two Brighton is a beautiful seaside city, but it's got a dark underbelly. Peter James cities dark beautiful I think that Brighton, for a crime writer, is almost like a character. Peter James crime character thinking There are an awful lot of readers who won't pick up a book if they think it's got anything horrific in it, or paranormal or whatever. Peter James awful book thinking Obviously I don't have whatever it is you need to be a successful writer. Peter James successful needs Most good police officers are very open-minded. The bad ones are the ones who are close-minded. Peter James close-minded police open-minded Stalin was experimenting with telepathy in the 1930's. Winston Churchill had a paranormal office, trying to get people to travel out of their bodies and see behind enemy lines in the Second World War. And the Pentagon... The X-Files is based on a real department in the Pentagon, that's still there now. Pretty much every government, probably as far back in time as we can go, has one. And the police will quite often - and when I say often, I mean often - they will go to mediums if all else fails in the enquiry. Peter James real war mean We're full of electricity, and the walls and floor of a building contain carbon - the same makeup as a video tape - and I think we give off a huge amount of energy. Some people are able to see that and pick that up. I think almost every person I've met in my life has had some sort of experience that they can't explain, and those fascinate me. Peter James makeup wall thinking There's no question that ghosts exist. The big question for me is whether ghosts are simply electronic imprints left in the walls or the atmosphere of places, or whether they do actually represent something from the afterlife. Peter James atmosphere afterlife wall I've always been much more scared of the living than I am of the dead. Peter James scared Police do get obsessed with solving crimes. You know, particularly if there's been a murder, it becomes personal for the police officer very quickly, and it gets to the family. Even after they've retired, they carry on, not letting go. Peter James murder police letting-go If you and I took a walk down a shopping street in Jo'burg or Cape Town or London, we see two guys looking in a shop window, we think, "Oh, they're wondering what they're going to buy." A cop looks at them and thinks, "Why are they standing there? Are they doing a drug deal? Are they going to mug someone? Are they going to rob the shop?" Peter James shopping two thinking Every profession has its own culture, but the police look at the world differently to everybody else. I call it a 'healthy culture of suspicion'. Peter James police healthy world I never actually wanted to write horror, oddly enough. It was a kind of misnomer, because I didn't ever actually write horror in the sense of the genre known for it. It was more a type of pigeon-holing in bookshops. Peter James pigeons kind writing
