Trash Mutant Interviews (TMI): George Mann

- by Ninja Ross, 13 November 2013

George Mann

George Mann is an acclaimed author, best known for his steampunk novels about the adventures of Sir Maurice Newbury, investigator for the Crown, and and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes. The novels and short stories about Newbury & Hobbes are not the only work of his our readers may be familiar with. He also wrote new original works about such characters as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, to name just a few. Last month Titan Books released his latest book - "The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes, Volume One". Today, our own Ninja Ross speaks with the talented author.

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TRASH MUTANT: Where did the idea for Newbury & Hobbes come from? What inspired the characters?

GEORGE MANN: I'm not sure there's an easy answer to this one, I'm afraid. I can't say that the characters popped into my head fully formed, but I'd been thinking for a good while about writing a series of stories about a male investigator of weird goings-on in a pseudo-Victorian London before I sat down to write The Affinity Bridge, and he was always going to have a female sidekick called Veronica. I guess the interesting thing for me is how that then evolved into what it is today – the overarching story is probably, in the end, more Veronica's tale than Newbury's. Some of the supporting characters, too, have grown to become somewhat more fundamental than I'd at first anticipated – Amelia Hobbes and Charles Bainbridge specifically – so I think it's really just something that's evolved over time, in the telling. 

Of course, I grew up with a schooling of Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who and The Avengers, amongst other things, and of course these have all had an influence on my own work, too. 

You're one of the steampunk's most recognizable authors and your books about Newbury and Hobbes are very popular among the genre's fans. What is it that attracts you to steampunk?

Well, I think it's the playfulness of the genre, the aesthetic of that strange, industrial version of the Victorian age, which really pulls me in. I love the fact it allows us to make a fantasy out of the past. There's no pretence that anyone's attempting to portray historical fact. There's a great freedom in that as a writer. Although I should add that, truthfully, I don't really know if what I write *is* steampunk, so much as 'fantastic Victoriana'. I use a lot of the furniture of the steampunk genre, but there's not a great deal of 'punk' in what I do. 

You've written some Doctor Who prose in the past. Have you always been a fan of The Doctor?

Yes, absolutely. Doctor Who has had a massive influence on me, and on my work. Ever since I was a child I've been drawn to the show, as I think so many people of my generation were. It's part of the fictional landscape of Britain, and its influence can be felt in so many things these days. It was a joy to be given the opportunity to add to that great story with my own novel, Paradox Lost.

What's it like writing iconic characters like Sherlock Holmes and The Doctor? Do you feel any pressure from their fans?

Yes! There's a great deal of pressure, not least from myself. It's important to me to get the characters right when I'm writing for the Doctor or Holmes, to capture the tone and mannerisms that people have come to love and expect. That's particularly true with Doctor Who, when you're also trying to pin down not just the overall core of the characters and the way he behaves, but also remain true to the performance of a particular actor or actors. That's challenging to get right.

Is there a classic character you haven't worked on before that you'd love to take a shot at writing?

I've been a huge fan of Sexton Blake for many years, and for just about as long as I've been reading his adventures, I've been willing him to make a comeback so I can write a new adventure for him. Thankfully, I'm finally going to get a chance next year with a new novella, the first in a rebooted Sexton Blake Library, called 'Sexton Blake and the Vengeful Dead'. I can't wait.

There are two other characters I'd kill to write for, too – Batman and Spider-Man. One day, perhaps!

Other than the obvious matter of page count, how is writing a short story different from a full-length novel? Is one easier than the other?

I think it's a different discipline, really. A short story is a very particular form. It hinges on a twist or a punch line, rather than a slowly unfolding story or mystery. For me, there's almost as much thought and preparation in writing a N&H story as there is a novel, although clearly there's a lot more actual work that goes into crafting a book. I find a novel is all about endurance – about the day in, day out job of getting words on the page, and then rewriting and crafting them afterwards, too. A short story has to be leaner. Every word counts. In a novel it's easier to allow yourself to ramble a little, to follow an interesting idea to its conclusion. In a short story you risk unbalancing things if you go off piste like that.

What can readers, both old and new, expect from The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes?

Hopefully something a bit different. I've allowed myself to explore a bit more of Newbury and Veronica's world in these stories, shining a light on some of the things that tend to get overlooked in the novels. I've also played around a bit with the form of the stories, so the shape of them might be a bit different, too – one of the stories is told almost entirely in letters, for example, while another one is comprised of twelve 100 word chapters. 

I'm hoping all of the stories will appeal to people who already know N&H, of course -– some of the stories fill in gaps from between the novels, too. 

What was it like having Newbury and Hobbes meet Sherlock Holmes? Was it a lot of fun to write? A challenge? 

Oh, it was a great deal of fun! It was something I've wanted to do for ages. Although it's not something I intend to do a lot – Newbury and Veronica have plenty of their own adventures still to be told – but I thoroughly enjoyed setting Holmes and Newbury off against one another, and allowing Watson to get a bit of the limelight, too.

How do you approach writing original characters, compared to more established characters, such as Holmes?

In many ways it’s easier, because you're not trying to remain true to everything that's gone before. At the same, time, though, you've got a lot more of the work to do yourself if you want to give your characters depth. I'm so familiar with Newbury, Veronica and Bainbridge these days, though, that I can pretty much see how they'd react I'm any given situation, and when I sit down to write for them it's a bit like slipping on an old, familiar jumper. The fun thing is to put them trough their paces, and to challenge them. At the moment, as things are left at the end of The Executioner's Heart, tensions are running high between all of the main characters, and I'm enjoying seeing how all of that plays out. 

What are you currently working on? Any novels, short stories? A brand new set of characters, reoccurring ones?

I'm currently putting the finishing touches to the fifth N&H novel, The Revenant Express, and planning how that leads into book six, The Albion Initiative. Aside from that there's the Sexton Blake novella I mentioned, some more outings for Gabriel Cross (aka the Ghost), and something entirely new, too. I'd love to write more N&H short stories, too, building towards a second volume of the Casebook. Time will tell!

Thank you very much for the interview!

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George Mann's "Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes" is out now, on Titan Books. We will have a review of it next week! Are you a George Mann fan? Have you already read his latest? Sound off in the comments!

Tagged: TM Interviews, books.

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