Mike Gayle | Interview | Author Spotlight | Q&A

Hey Bookworms, 

I totally unapologetically did a happy dance when Mike Gayle (pictured) did me the honor of featuring in my Author Spotlight for September! I've been a huge fan since I picked up Life & Soul Of The Party along time ago now and have devoured all of his books since. I just adore the way he seamlessly blends humour and sensitivity into his novels they never fail to warm my heart (or sometimes break it!).

Mike was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology, he moved to London to pursue a career in journalism and work as a features editor and an agony uncle. 

He became a full-time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, which was hailed by the Independent as 'full of belly laughs and painfully acute observations', and by the Times as 'a frank, funny account of a hopeless romantic'. Since then he has written 15 novels and been translated into more than 30 languages. 

He currently celebrating the release of All The Lonely people and very kindly found some spare time to talk to me. So without further ado here is my Q&A with the fabulous man himself...

 

To listen click here or scroll down to read it.

Can you tell me something about All the Lonely People that isn't in the blurb? 

Something that isn't in the blurb is the fact that All the Lonely People is across two timelines. One time they set in the now and the second timeline takes you from Hurbert’s beginnings when he first arrived in England in the late 1950s and takes you all the way through the decades, so it takes you through the 60s and the 70s in the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s and 2010s until you reach now. So that isn't in the blurb. And as a whole, it's telling the story of how someone becomes lonely, but also telling the story of what he does about his loneliness. 

 

How did he come up with the inspiration for this novel?  

The inspiration for this novel, I suppose, was really thinking about loneliness and thinking about, how somebody becomes lonely? It's one of those things you kind of think about it all the time. You think when you see an elderly person, who is lonely, you never think to yourself, they haven't always been like that. You know this is been a slow process and so I wanted to look at how someone's life becomes so shut off from the world. I suppose that's what I was thinking and I also wanted to look at how they can change it, and what they might be able to do about it.  

 

It's a funny thing because when I was writing it, loneliness and race weren't such hot topics as they are now. I remember talking to my editor and agent recently and just saying, you know, you couldn't have picked a book that's more now than All the Lonely People because of Black Lives Matter. And also because of lockdown, loneliness, and race have become those two things that are forefront of a lot of people's minds. But that wasn’t where I got the inspiration from, I wanted to write about the sort of the Windrush generation, but I also wanted to make it something that had a much bigger scope. 

 

Which of your novels is your favourite and why?  

Well, my answer to this question is always the same. My favourite novel is always my first novel My Legendary Girlfriend because that was the one that started off my career. And without it, I wouldn't be where I am today. It also has to be the one that I'm working on has to be my favourite novel because I'm spending so much time on it, trying to work everything out and trying to get it as exciting and as fresh as possible. So, you've got to really love the novel that you're working on. But to be honest, I love all my novels for different reasons, you know, because each one I poured my heart and soul into and so, I love them all equally, really.  

 

What is your most surprising what's the most surprising thing you've discovered when writing your novels?  

The most surprising thing I think I've discovered while writing my novels is that you'd think it would become easier the longer you do it but actually, it seems to become harder. I would describe it as, imagine a cake and that each time you have a slice of the cake, there's actually less cake. It's a similar sort of thing with writing books, especially if you're writing books within the same sort of genre, each time you want to write something different, but there's less of the cake. I'm always shocked because when you write a different novel it has different problems and different solutions to those problems, it's never the same. So, you're not battling across the same issues time and time again. What might have helped you in your first novel, might not necessarily help you in your second novel. Yeah, I think generally as a whole, writing novels helps you to write novels. But I'm always surprised by how difficult it still is after 22 years.  

 

Which authors do you admire the most? 

I admired by all sorts of authors, I mean, you know, I just admire anybody who is always up for a challenge and is always trying to do things that differently. I've got a few favourites, I'm a big fan of Lisa Jewel and Jenny Colgan. I also like Thomas Hardy. Oh, it's the most difficult question to ask, really, because I like lots of different authors for different reasons. You know, to be honest, I'm a big fan of all authors, really, because anybody who can sit down and write a book from beginning to end, you know, I feel as got has to be admired.  

 

If I could choose to be a character in a book, who would it be and why?  

The first answer that sort of springs to mind was there was a book I read by H.G. Wells called The Wheels of Chance, which is one of my favourite novels. It’s about a guy at the turn of the century I think he is a working-class guy. He has one week of holiday a year and he goes on a bicycle holiday, meets a middle-class lady and they have this amazing adventure. I haven’t read it in years, but there's something about that story that I really connected with and that character. Another character is Just William from the Just William books by Rushmore Crompton. I definitely identify with him.  

 

Where's your favourite place to write?  

My favourite place to write is my study and I do most of my writing and there. It used to be my youngest daughter's bedroom, when it was it had pink walls and now it's even ten years later, it's still got pink walls and I do need to paint it and decorate it. But before lockdown, actually, my answer to that question would have been my local cafe. I've got a cafe just about 100 meters away from my front door and I was getting into a really good writing groove there. Then suddenly lockdown happened and I haven't been able to write there. 

What is the best thing about being an author? 

The best feeling is to be able to just make things up and create worlds that people are completely invested in. You know, when people tell me that they've been moved to tears by one of my books, I'm always amazed and just think, you know, these aren't real people, these aren't real situations and yet I've managed to get people to believe in them so much that they've been moved to tears. So, I think that's the best thing about being an author.  

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't writing? 

When I'm not writing, I like to do anything that is not sitting in front of a computer screen. So, I will walk the dog. I will listen to music, I will read, but I won't sit in front of a computer, that's the long and short of it.  

Which book is currently on your bedside table?  

Ooh, that is a good question. Currently on my bedside table is The End of Her by Shari Lapena. I've not even started it yet. But I've read Shari’s, other books and I've enjoyed those, so I'm looking forward to that. 

 

What is my favourite quotation? 

I'm going to go with the one that I used for All the Lonely People. It's at the very beginning and it's from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It says, ‘’The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.’’ I really like that quote and so that's why I put it in front of All the Lonely People. 

 

What's coming next for me?  

My next book for me. I'm looking forward to the American release of All the Lonely People. I haven't in America for quite a while so all being well that will be next summer so I'm looking forward to that. And I'm working on a new book which I can't tell you anything about right now, but that's what I'm doing right at the moment.  

Thanks, Mike it was an absolute pleasure! 😊

Click here to read my review of Half A World Away & check back soon to read my review of All The Lonely People.