Mark Billingham on being an actor, a stand-up and a writer: 'It's all performing'

Mark Billingham recalls a moment during one of his earliest appearances as a published crime author when a woman fainted in the front row.

It happened about 20 years ago at a public event as he read aloud from his debut novel, the creepy and compelling Sleepyhead.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m on to something here’,” the British thriller writer tells The National.

Billingham has since written 20-plus novels, mostly featuring his gnarly detective Tom Thorne, accompanied by two TV series.

The crime writer aged 60 has, thankfully, witnessed fewer dramas among audiences during his public outings, including previous slots at Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. Then, Billingham reckons he has become “better as a writer” since his grislier early days, and tends to focus on the effects – rather than the acts – of violence.

“It doesn’t necessarily need to be visceral and graphic because it’s easy to disgust the reader,” he says. “But making a reader care about characters … that’s the job.”

Billingham is also arguably more effective than some contemporaries when it comes to taking himself on the road, in part because of his past career. Prior to finding success with the murderous surrounds of his weary London sleuth, the Birmingham-born author spent two decades touring stand-up comedy, and TV acting, including roles in vintage UK cop shows Dempsey and Makepeace and Juliet Bravo.

“It’s all showing off,” explains Billingham. “It’s all performing, and that’s all I’ve ever really done for a living … whether as an actor or stand-up, or as a novelist, you’re always trying to give the best performance you can.

“And I realised very early that writers had to sell themselves every bit as much as the publisher had to sell their books. You have to stand up on stages around the world, but because of my background I enjoy it, and I try to make these events as enjoyable as possible.”

Presumably, interacting with devoted readers must also provide a welcome contrast to the solitary routine of writing.

Billingham agrees, although he reveals the community of crime writers is “extremely collegiate and supportive” and that they all know each other.

“I’m not saying we’re all great friends,” he says, “but it’s a nice close gang to be part of.”

To the extent that Billingham and five other authors – including fellow bestsellers Christopher Brookmyre and Val McDermid – are in a rock band called the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. Although “just a laugh”, in 2019 the wordy supergroup performed at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival.

Not that the band will accompany Billingham’s Dubai return on February 11.

“I’m still putting this thing in front of an audience and going, ‘I really hope you like it’,” he says of both his novels and the three festival sessions lined up. “The writing is the job, and these lovely festivals are the perk for me, where I get my performance jollies.”

Certainly, the UAE jaunt comes at an interesting juncture in Billingham’s oeuvre. Famed for his Thorne TV series, the writer won acclaim for his 2021 standalone Rabbit Hole and is preparing another left turn with a series informed partly by his comedic past.

“It is going to be very much lighter in tone and much funnier,” reveals Billingham.

“I’m still writing about a detective, a strange individual, but not set in London, and not as dark, but it’s not a comic crime novel, it’s not a caper. It’s just coming at things from a slightly different angle and allowing me to exercise some comedic instincts, which I’ve had to hold in check because that’s not who Thorne is.”

The title and publication date have yet to be confirmed, but the writer concurs that breaks from the tried and trusted enable him to “maintain a degree of freshness”. Plus, he has earned creative freedom.

“It’s called a comfort zone for a reason,” says Billingham. “You’ve got to step out of it if you don’t want to risk becoming formulaic.

“There are plenty of series that are past their sell-by dates and you don’t want to be one of those writers. You’ve got to keep yourself interested because if you’re bored, then one thing is for certain … your reader will very soon also be bored.”

Fans of his enduring detective inspector need not panic yet, however: Thorne returns in The Murder Book, in June. And while the author says that draws a line under “quite a lot of things”, he isn’t abandoning Thorne.

What Billingham’s international popularity does confirm, perhaps – his books have been translated into 30 languages – is the universal nature of violent crime and public curiosity with it, along with an insatiable appetite for crime fiction, despite communities often confronting crime facts.

“A crime novel will mess with you and take you into all manner of strange places, but nine times out of 10, there will be a resolution of sorts at the end,” says Billingham.

“I say ‘of sorts’ because in a lot of my books everything isn’t fine again, you don’t tie up every loose end, but there is that element of closure.

“Crime fiction has become the sort of social fiction of our time because a detective can go anywhere, can cut through various layers of society, so you can write about what is actually going on in the world.

“That’s not an agenda – I’m trying to tell the best story I can – but if, within that, I can shine a little light on a particular issue, I like to.”

At the same time, the world isn’t exactly a drought of inspiration, be that news bulletins or neighbourly gossip. Billingham describes writers as like magpies.

“Usually, a couple of ideas are jangling around; people tell you stuff or there’s something you heard on the radio, a little story in the paper, something that makes you ask questions.

“And that smashes into something else in your head and tends to spark something … you start to think about what could be going on and inevitably tend to make it darker, weird, more twisted.

“Then, sometimes I think, ‘wow, that is the darkest thing I’ve ever written’ … and you turn on the news.”

Either way, Billingham has consistently delivered and while set on broadening his repertoire beyond a veteran cop frequenting millions of bookshelves, he enjoys generous levels of trust, not least with his publisher.

“I’ve never had to deliver a synopsis,” he says. “I’ve never had to show them anything.

“Anytime I’ve decided to change direction or write something very different, they’ve been fine, but if I was to say the next one was going to be a slim volume of poetry with some recipes … they might go, ‘Are you sure?’”

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature runs from February 3 to 13 at Al Habtoor City. More information is at www.emirateslitfest.com