Broadcaster and author Simon Mayo heads to the Slaughter in Southwold festival this month to chat about his new novel with a strangely familiar theme
The idea for the opening lines of a thriller came to him years ago: a young girl is thrown off a bus by the passengers because she’s infected with a mysterious illness. But what happened next?
'It just sat there for a while,' says Simon Mayo. 'When I came back to it, we were in the first few months of the pandemic and it felt even creepier. So I carried on.' The result is Tick Tock, a gripping, terrifying and intriguing novel set in an imagined near-future where a contagious infection threatens the world.
Simon Mayo may still be best known as an award-winning broadcaster, currently hosting Drivetime on Greatest Hits Radio after leaving Radio 2 last year, and presenting The Take film review podcast with Mark Kermode, but he is also a popular, bestselling writer of high concept thrillers for children, teenagers and adults, and he’s also written historical fiction.
He's a regular visitor to Suffolk having first been introduced to the county by friends. 'We explored Westleton, Southwold and Halesworth. We enjoyed ourselves hugely,' he says. He returns in June for the Slaughter in Southwold crimewriting festival when fans will be able to chat to him about this latest novel that draws on recent events.
'Covid has become a muscle memory in this book,' says Simon. 'It’s the dusty old mask you find in your old winter coat. Everyone knows how to react, what to do. The shops and schools shut down very fast, they don’t need to be told this time.' The illness at first seems merely a puzzling irritation – a ticking noise in the ear which other people can hear. Initially there’s no pain, but as the condition develops there are tragic consequences.
‘Objective tinnitus’, the diagnosis behind the early stages of this fictional condition, is actually a ‘thing’. Simon should know - he’s had tinnitus for years, he says. 'I always wondered if I could get a story out of it. If it’s going to live inside my head, it might as well pay rent.' As the source of the illness is gradually uncovered, Tick Tock references real life places and incidents such as the Salisbury poisonings, the Ukraine war and top secret research at the Government facility, Porton Down.
'Tying the Tick Tock story to real life and real events is at the heart of the book,' says Simon. 'They interweave with the fiction in ways which hopefully tie the story down in reality.' But is a mysterious, contagious illness a bit too close to reality for us still? Why did he feel this was the story he needed to tell now? 'It’s where the idea took me,' he says, 'and an anxious reader is an attentive listener. If you’re anxious, you care.'
Simon is well practised in crafting a fast-paced, well-structured, compelling novel and he’s also picked up tips from the many bestselling authors he’s met through his BBC Radio 2 Book Club and, more recently, his Books of the Year podcast. He focuses on the method of writing adopted by his interviewees as much as the plot and characters.
His seven novels are notable for appealing to different ages of readers with diverse themes and styles, though they are all thrillers, he says. 'I’ve just gone where the story leads. And the more you write, the more you pick up on snatches of conversation, interesting inventions, new movements or new ideas that have sprung up. "Stay curious" is good life advice but I find it essential for writing too.'
Inspiration does, indeed, come from the most surprising places. Simon is a regular visitor to Suffolk and the names on a noticeboard at Blythburgh Church famously gave him the characters for his Itch trilogy of books about a teenage scientist who collects elements from the periodic table.
'That really was serendipitous,' he says. 'My characters, Itchingham Lofte and Nathaniel Flowerdew, were both priests at Blythburgh in the 17th century and are on the board of the Perpetual Curates in the church. In my book they are schoolboy and science teacher, hero and villain.'
Itch is currently being turned into an opera, commissioned by Opera Holland Park and written by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton. It will premiere this year. It's not a typical route for a children’s novel, but the drama, adventure and subject matter has a great appeal and Itch has also been made into a TV series. So does Simon picture his books for the screen, or stage, as he writes?
'That would seem presumptuous,' he says. 'Trying to make them work as books is the only consideration. That is hard enough, without wondering what a TV or movie adaptation would look like. But I do hope that Mark gets to review a film of mine one day. That would be great fun.'
So Simon will keep writing, managing to find time between radio commitments and at weekends and holidays, particularly when he enjoys time in Suffolk where he finds a quiet corner. Coffee and a comfortable chair are his requirements, he says, so the radio is turned off.
'I like the idea of a playlist for my books, but find the rhythms a distraction when I’m writing,' he says. 'If you are trying to get into a flow, some genius musician is not going to be the help you think they might be. The only reason I’d put music on is for white noise if the local builders are being noisy, and then something without words will do the trick.
'Having said that, music seems to be involved in all my books at some point. The Clash are in Blame, there are spirituals in Mad Blood Stirring and a character in Knife Edge is a huge classical music fan.' Readers will have to make their own decision on the soundtrack for Tick Tock.
Simon Mayo will be speaking at Slaughter in Southwold on Saturday 17 June. suffolklibraries.co.uk
