*** Interview with Tim Bowler

Yesterday I posted a review of the first book in the reissued Blade series by Tim Bowler. Today, as promised, we are joined by Tim who very kindly agreed to answer some questions for readers of The Book Zone.

Hi Tim. Welcome to The Book Zone and thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for us. First up: how would you describe the Blade books to someone discovering them for the first time?

The series is an urban thriller about a fourteen-year-old boy nicknamed Blade and his battle to find redemption for the things he has done in the past. He has a terrifying skill with a knife and he has used this weapon to devastating effect, but he is a victim of the hideous circumstances in which he grew up, and by the time we meet him at the beginning of the story, he is on the run with his enemies closing in. The series highlights his brilliant gifts of survival but also his vulnerability as an individual as he fights against the odds and struggles with his awakening conscience.

What was the original inspiration for the Blade books?

There were several things that inspired the Blade series. Firstly, I have always had a horror of knives as weapons and while I find them frightening in any context, I am particularly horrified by the thought of young people carrying and using them. Secondly, I wanted to know whether someone who has committed the terrible acts of violence that Blade has can possibly come back from that and even have a future. Thirdly, I remember driving through a town in Devon in the 1980s and finding myself at a pedestrian crossing with the light on green and wondering why the car in front of me hadn't started to move forward. When I looked more closely, I saw that a boy of about seven had placed himself on the pedestrian crossing right in front of this other car and was jeering at the driver and daring him to drive on, which of course he couldn't and didn't. Car horns started going off behind me and eventually, when the boy had had his fun and made his point, he sidled over to the pavement with a triumphant grin on his face and 'allowed' the traffic to move on. I forgot about this boy for over twenty years and it was only when I'd written the first scene of Blade, where the seven-year-old Blade is in trouble with the police for holding up traffic at a pedestrian crossing, that I recognised where he had come from.

Blade is a great protagonist. Can you tell us a little more about him?

He's complex, he's dangerous, he's full of contradictions, he's street smart, he's bright, he loves books, he has an inquiring mind, he's inventive with words, he's likable, he's courageous. He's also deeply damaged. He's been damaged since the day he was born and it wasn't till he was ten that he started to learn to love and to trust. But by then it was too late and when he fled from his enemies at the age of eleven to go to ground in a new city, he sealed his mind against the possibility of ever loving or trusting again. But he didn't seal it tightly enough.

When the Blade books arrived at the school library a few years ago my librarian was a little hesitant about putting them on the shelves because of their focus on knife crime. I managed to persuade her that they were fine for our students. Have parents, teachers or librarians expressed similar concerns to you? What would your answer be?

One librarian did say to me that she was worried the series might glamorise knives for young people, but she hadn't read the books. I suggested that she first of all read the books for herself, and then find me one paragraph, one sentence even, that glorifies knives or suggests they're a good thing. Within just a few pages of the first book, we realise that this boy has a life nobody would want, and things only get harder for him as the story progresses. Far from portraying the romanticised life of some devil-may-care teen buccaneer with swashbuckling knife skills, the story shows a boy haunted by fear and guilt and perpetually on the edge of death, a boy fighting not just to save his own life but to believe in the point of that life. Blade is not a preachy story but it is a deeply moral one and I fail to see how an urban odyssey of this kind with sympathetic character portrayals and fast-moving action can possibly damage student readers, provided they are willing to embrace its issues in a mature way.

I have loved reading books ever since I was a child. Were you like this when you were younger or were you a reluctant reader? Who encouraged you to read when you were younger?

I'm just like you: an avid reader. I started at the age of five and never stopped. I just dived into reading. The first story I read was a sea story (Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain by Edward Ardizzone) and I've been passionate about sea stories ever since: Arthur Ransome, C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian, Robert Louis Stevenson etc. I lapped them all up. I also loved Tintin books, which I read in French, and thriller writers – too many to name – and then in my late teens I started moving towards poetry too. Since my twenties I've read pretty much anything that interests me – fiction of all kinds, poetry, non-fiction, e.g. biographies, history, history of music, diaries, letters, philosophy etc.

Is there anything else you would like to say to readers of this blog?

Just that it's been a real pleasure talking to you and to wish you all well. Thanks for your interest in Blade.

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Huge thanks to Tim for taking the time to answer these questions, especially as I know he has been very busy recently. If you have not yet discovered the Blade series then the books are perfect for teens who love realistic, gritty thrillers. You can find out more about Tim and his many books at his website http://www.timbowler.co.uk/ 

Review: Enemies by Tim Bowler (Blade book one)

Meet Blade. But be careful. You might not like what you see. He's dangerous. He needs to be. Because there are people who want him dead.

It's dog eat dog in his world. Win or die. He thought he was safe. But now they've found out where he is. And they're coming.

Tim Bowler's Blade books have been around for a handful of years. The first book, Playing Dead, was first published back in 2008, followed by a further seven instalments over the next couple of years. I remember Playing Dead arriving in the school library - my librarian stopped me as I was passing through and, concerned about its early mention of knife crime, asked me if was suitable to be put on the shelves. I had a very quick read of the opening chapter and gave her the thumbs up but for some reason I never got around to reading it fully at the time. Now Oxford University Press have started to reissue the books, this time over four volumes, and they very kindly sent me a copy of the first, Enemies, to read and review. 

All I can say is that I am disappointed that I did not continue to read Playing Dead back in 2008 as I would have spent the last four years recommending them to any teen reluctant reader who said they liked thrillers. If there was a checklist of elements that were guaranteed to suck a teen boy into a story this book would have a tick in every single box: a great protagonist that teens will easily identify with; a fast, very tightly plotted storyline; short chapters, most of which end in a way that pretty much force you to carry on reading; a very modern theme of youth crime, and how for some things can spiral out of control. Instead of closing libraries the government should be pulling disaffected kids into them and placing books like this into their hands.

The story is narrated by Blade, a fourteen year old with a a great deal of secrets in his past. As such, we know very little about Blade other than what he chooses to reveal as the story progresses, and herein lies the real magic of this story. Blade is such a believable character that even though I was a rather well behaved teenager, and many years ago to boot, I still found myself identifying with him, caring about him and fearing for him. I very quickly found myself desperately wanting needing to know the back story behind this damaged young man. Why is he on the run? Who are the thugs hunting him down? How has he survived living alone on the streets for so long?

Blade's narration of the story is quite different from most books I have read in recent years. As a reader I really felt that Blade was talking to me personally, such is Tim Bowler's mastery of the first person narrative. Blade even goes so far as to refer to the reader as Bigeyes, as if he was telling his story out loud across a Big Mac and fries. He also uses a great deal of street talk and colloquialisms, which again will appeal to teen readers.

This book would make a great class reader for a group of lower ability teens as it would engage them, and also draw them into discussions about Blade's behaviour, his use of language, and the general themes of teen crime and homelessness. It is certainly one I will be recommending to the English teachers at my school.

Enemies was published back at the beginning of February, and the sequel, Flight, is due to be in shops in June. I feel though that I must reiterate that these are reissues of books that were earlier published with different titles so please double check before buying. Please come back tomorrow when I will be posting an short interview that Tim has very kindly done for The Book Zone.

Review: Buried Thunder by Tim Bowler

When Maya strays into the forest, she walks straight into a nightmare.

It’s not just the horrific discovery she makes among the trees, it’s what’s waiting for her at home. Something too terrifying to believe in. She’s not even sure she believes it herself.

Perhaps she’s going mad—only imagining the sounds in the night and the feeling of being stalked. Maybe she didn’t see anything in the forest after all?

And there’s another question: what was she doing there in the first place . . . alone . . . at dusk? All she knows is that the eyes of a fox drew her there.

They will do so again.

Love horror? Getting a bit fed up with vampires, werewolves, zombies and the blood and gore their stories often contain? Well 2011 could be the year for you then, as there are a number of more traditional haunted house, ghost and psychological horror stories on the horizon. I have already featured Cliff McNish telling us about his forthcoming title The Hunting Ground, and I have just finished reading an early proof of a totally spinechilling book called Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough. But the first chiller I read this year, which is also the first of these to be released, was Buried Thunder by the brilliant Tim Bowler, officially published by OUP on today.

Tim Bowler is a name that should be up there with the likes of Darren Shan, William Hussey and Charlie Higson, but for some unknown reason he has yet to make the leap to stella stardom that these other horror authors have made. Maybe it is because his books are so different from these, very much relying on the psychological aspects of the horror story; the kind of stuff that made Stephen King such a successful author. I think many young people today have a view that horror equals blood and guts, or one of those aforementioned classic monster types, and therefore view books like Buried Thunder as thrillers instead. However, many of the more popular adult horror authors such as King and James Herbert have built their careers on just this kind of writing. Like these authors, instead of gore Tim Bowler fills his stories with atmosphere, and in doing so creates a feeling of creeping dread within the reader from the very first page, a dread that lasts well beyond the end of the story.

However you label Buried Thunder, be it horror or psychological thriller, it is still pretty damn unsettling. It tells the story of Maya, a fourteen year old girl who has just moved to the countryside with her parents and brother, as they start their new life running a small hotel. Tim Bowler doesn't waste any time introducing characters or back story, instead on the very first page he has Maya stumbling across several bodies in the local woods, bodies that there are no sign of later when the police begin their search of the area. Even worse, one of the investigating police constables is the spitting image of one of these bodies. 

Immediately our minds and filled with questions: Is Maya going mad? Has she had some kind of premonition? These questions and more play on the mind all the way through the book, and just as it seems an answer is looming and the evil machinations of a particular character revealed, Tim Bowler adds a deft twist to the plot and someone/something else comes under suspicion. And what's more - not all of these questions are answered come the end of the story and the author leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions regarding the meaning behind some of the more supernatural elements of the story. I know some readers will not like this but I thought it was inspired - it left me thinking about the book for some time after. Add to this mix a handful of rather strange and sinister characters, animal mutilations, and scratching noises at Maya's bedroom door during the night and you can't help but fear that the ending may not be a good one for Maya or her family. And as with some of Tim Bowler's previous books there are strong mystical elements to this story which keep the reader hooked from the very offset, desperate to discover just what the hell is going on.

As I was reading this book I couldn't help but think about some of the classic serials that the BBC used to show in their 4-6pm slots back in the 1970s and 1980s, some of which were adaptations of books. I'm thinking serials such as The Owl Service, Moondial, Children of the Stones, and many others that I enjoyed at the time but for the life of me cannot remember the titles of now. Buried Thunder is very similar in nature to these old school stories, some of which were very scary at the time, although not having watched children's TV for some time I have no idea if dramas like this are made these days.

I have not read many of Tim Bowler's books but Buried Thunder has certainly made me want to hunt more of these out. If you want more information about his work then why not do as I did and pop over to his website at http://www.timbowler.co.uk where, with a little hunting, you will also be able to find a short video clip of Tim reading an extract from Buried Thunder. My thanks go to Michelle Harrison at OUP for sending me a copy of this book.