Interview with Author Phil Clarke
Phil Clarke
I am thrilled to have interviewed author Phil Clarke, who shared with us details of his writing life, his book ‘Falling Night‘, which was released on 20th June 2023, and answered a few fun questions. This post contains affiliate links.
Philip Clarke spent most of the 1990s in Africa, both as a humanitarian aid worker and as a tropical forest researcher. He then worked for nine years as an executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), before founding the war crimes investigation agency, Bloodhound.
Falling Night is Phil Clarke’s debut novel, based on actual experiences by the author or his acquaintances in the various wars that took place in Africa during the 1990s, but using fictional characters.
1) Where did the inspiration for your book come from?
The original inspiration to write a novel about an aid worker in Africa came from various Graham Greene novels such as The Heart of the Matter that I read during my first posting with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders to Somalia in 1994. I loved reading about the interaction between someone from my part of the world in a completely different context and culture, which reflected my own reality as a Brit working in a war zone in Africa.
Somalia at that time was utter anarchy — no government, and no-one even pretending to be the government, in a land where every man carried an AK47 Kalashnikov rifle as they paced the means streets that I could only venture into with a massive UN military escort. I had already spent over three years in Africa, working as a tropical forest researcher in the bush, so I thought I was used to seeing dire poverty etc. but the experience of war was yet another league further from my comfort zone, and the experiences were so bizarre I thought it might be fun for others to experience them through literature.
2) How did you plan out the plot?
The overall plot is based on my life experiences as an aid worker in Somalia, Rwanda, Congo/Zaire/ Liberia, Lebanon, and Sudan. The main story arc fell easily into place, but it proved to be a challenge for me to connect the nodes to ensure a smooth and credible story.
3) When did you choose the title for your book?
I had a title from when I first started the novel that included the word ’Night’ but it was too long. By August 2016, I had updated the title to The Falling Night. My second editor – who worked for the publisher – didn’t like it, but she liked Falling Night.
4) How did you come up with the names for your characters?
Various first names in Britain are associated with the different social classes, so this knowledge was a big influence on the selected names for the British characters. Another factor was to have each starting with a different letter of the alphabet, to make it easier for readers to differentiate them, which is why they span from the main character Alan all the way to Wendy.
Most of the Kugombwalans have first names that have the Scottish Prefix Mac added, for example MacJohn, to allow for a further 26 first names. Once again, their first names after the Mac prefix start with different letters of the alphabet. They span from MacAbraham to MacZak.
In general, I tried to choose well-known first names so that readers would not struggle with remembering them.
5) How did you go about researching the content for your book?
I was fortunate as a professional aid worker and war crimes investigator that I was writing about a subject that I was already well experienced with.
6) What made you choose this genre?
War zones are a good setting for thrillers.
7) How long did it take you to complete your book?
Twenty five years… I never expected it to be so difficult and demanding.
8) Can you describe your book in three words?
Aid worker novel.
9) What’s the hardest part of being a writer?
Getting published. It is a huge hurdle, that seems to be much easier for some than others. From completing the full manuscript in August 2018, it took almost 5 years to go to print in June 2023.
10) Why should our readers pick your book up?
It is a unique aid worker novel that will give them many insights into situations and parts of our world that most readers have never encountered. Take the literary adventure!
Publisher – Emerald House Group
Pages – 408
Release Date – 20th June 2023
ISBN 13 – 978-1649603449
Format – ebook, paperback
Synopsis
Alan Swales is no hero and no saint. Bored by a successful, yet dull life in Britain with his girlfriend, Mandy, he decides to become an aid worker in Africa to experience adventure and acquire anecdotes to impress his mates.
Plunged into a civil war waged by vicious warlords and their child soldiers, Alan has to make unexpected choices about the direction of his life as well as his relationship with Mandy. As the situation deteriorates, he hears rumours of a hidden genocide, which leads him on a dangerous quest for evidence in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles.
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Fun Questions
1) Do you have a writing buddy?
Towards the end of the process I was given an old MacBook Air, which became a delightful companion to the lovely process of creative writing.
2) Do you have any writing quirks?
I enjoy writing on trains. The ever-changing view encourages the long distant staring that furthers creativity.
3) Where do you write?
At home, in the office, on trains and planes. The novel has been written in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, Canada, the US, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.
4) Your book has been made into a movie, you’ve been offered a cameo role, what will you be doing?
I will be one of the locals in the pub called The Fighting Dogs in Brickdale, Yorkshire (p. 289 of the novel).
5) A talking owl has just finished reading your book, what’s the first thing he says to you?
‘Phew-hooo-no-voodoo’
Author links
Website
A big thank you to Phil Clarke for sharing his writing life with us and for a wonderful interview.
