It might look like he’s calmly and contentedly enjoying a coffee. But as he quietly sips his drink – Nick Oldham is likely planning a violent jewellery shop heist, or perhaps a brutal murder.
Nick is a prolific author of crime thrillers and the creator of the acclaimed Henry Christie detective series. ‘I’m always thinking about the next book, even while I’m in the process of writing the current one. There are always four or five plot ideas floating around my head at any one time,’ as he tells Lancashire Life.
When a plot is fully formed, Nick reaches for his notebook: ‘I know it sounds quite old school, but I can’t write directly onto the computer. I write everything out long hand with pen and paper. When I get to the end (around 160 pages of my handwriting equates to about 80,000 words) then I type it up and make any necessary changes as I go before it is sent to the editor.’
‘Many years ago, I was a sergeant in Morecambe and Carnforth, and then Lancaster where I was responsible for five or six officers up and down the Lune Valley. I think some of this rural Lancashire policing experience probably inspired Jessica Raker’s role as Sergeant in Clitheroe and the Ribble Valley.
‘I do use creative freedom and take some liberties with geography, but I really enjoyed including real places in this book. There are incidents in and around Clitheroe, a drowning at Audley Reservoir, and a motorbike chase down Waddington Road to name just a few.
‘There’s always a combination of fact and fiction when it comes to setting; Dead Man’s Stake is a real place outside Dunsop Bridge through the Trough of Bowland, but I made up the farm for the plot.
‘Similarly, I’ve already finished the follow up book to this one – which is based on Wolf Fell behind Chipping, and it was necessary to invent a mansion there for the action to take place.’
Nick retired as a police inspector having joined the force aged just 19, but has been a keen writer since he was 11 or 12 years old. During his career he was a PC, a firearms officer, he was promoted to sergeant and later moved to headquarters to become a trainer. Nick strives to keep his books both exciting and believable. ‘I try to make police procedures true to life, because my career has given me that knowledge and experience to draw on.
Check out the latest edition of Lancashire Life magazine for more brilliant interviews
‘I love watching TV police dramas, I think they’re fantastic - but it can occasionally be distracting when they stray too far from reality. Certain things are obviously done for the plot or for dramatic effect (you wouldn’t see someone interviewed without a solicitor in real life, for example) but sometimes the uniforms are simply incorrect or they refer to colleagues as the wrong rank. I try to keep procedures realistic within my writing without getting too tied down in mundanity.’
Nick would love to see his own plots play out onscreen and he has come incredibly close over the years. ‘The TV and film rights were bought six or seven years in a row. The company got as far as writing a script, which I still have, and discussing actors for the lead role. There was one up-and-coming actor they thought would particularly suit, but it never quite got as far as production... I often like to think how Daniel Craig could potentially have become Henry Christie instead of James Bond.’
Death at Dead Man’s Stake, published by Severn House, will join Nick’s 40+ other novels in bookshops, online and in libraries across the country.
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