ABOUT THE SPIDER TRUCES:

How did you start the book?

At a certain point in my life, I had a period of having very vivid recollections of the village I grew up in and of particular incidents. These were not dramatic or unusual but they were “mine” and I felt the need to record them. Somewhere in that time, what I was writing down changed from recording memories to creating wholly fictional stories and characters and setting them in various places I have lived. By 2003 I had decided these notes would be a novel, my first novel. Very few of those early notes and real memories survived the cull from a 700-page first draft to a 300-page book. In all, it took five years to write.

What encouraged you along the way?

My brother Pip, my best mate, Jim. And the fact that I was very focused on doing this, whatever the outcome and however long it took.

Did you visit the locations you were writing about?

I set the book in three places I have lived. Everything else about the process of writing a novel was foreign to me, including the story itself, so I decided that the locations would be the elements that I really knew and was expert on. My memory of these places is profoundly vivid and detailed, so I did not return to them for the purposes of the writing, and, in the case of my village, the changes that have occurred naturally over time would have hindered me. It is also the case that in writing the book I have manipulated the layout and reality of those settings to suit my story.

Did you know how the novel would end when you began it?

I knew, but it had other ideas. It won. My ending was terrible.

How did you want the reader to feel on finishing the book?

It would be immensely pleasing for me if the reader loved and cared for the characters, would miss them a little, and had their own vivid picture of the landscapes. But I’d settle for them not demanding their money back.

Are any of the characters based on people you have known?

No. There are real people who I have in mind and who inspire small physical or psychological elements of a fictional character, but I do not take real people and put them in a story - where’s the fun in that when you can play inventor and create characters just as you want them? The best example I can give is Reardon. In the village I grew up in there was a farmer who I found daunting and impressive when I was a child, and who I grew up to admire and love. He was a one-off, and, to me, an inspiration. He was incredibly encouraging of my work and we shared an appreciation of similar landscapes and art. I was by no means amongst his closest circle of friends, but he meant a great deal to me. I had a desire to write a character of a farmer who meant a great deal to Ellis, but the Reardon of the story and the Reardon-Ellis relationship are entirely fictitious. So, none of the characters are based on real people, but the essence of a real person (or maybe just a very detailed characteristic) is sometimes a starting point for what becomes a fictitious character.

Did any image or piece of music inspire you?

Strauss’s Four Last Songs and the paintings of Andrew Wyeth.

How important was research to the writing of the book?

I referred to the Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe by Michael J. Roberts, and to the excellent Spiders by Michael Chinery.

How important is the temporal setting of the novel?

Perhaps, a bit like the settings I used, it was comfortable for me to set the story in the same years that I was Ellis’s age. I loved my childhood so, by association, I have vivid and positive images of rural and coastal life in the 70s and 80s.

How did you decide on the novel’s title?

What was important to me about Denny’s idea for the truces was that it went against the grain for him. He used his heart and his strength to bring his children up, but he did not use his imagination. The truces were the first time he did use his imagination, and risk embarrassing himself too. I love Denny for doing that.