Get Carter the movie has just been re-released. No better time to read Nick Triplow’s biography of Ted Lewis, who wrote many more superb Noir novels, his own life a particularly dark and dissolute story.
My Amazon critique, one of many five star reviews.
Well researched, well written, well worth reading.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2017
I’ve wanted to know more about Ted Lewis for about forty years and this doesn’t disappoint. It’s a sombre story. I’ve known a lot of alcoholics but none who managed to kill themselves this quickly.
Back then parents, especially fathers, could be distant, teachers might be brutal. Even so, the cold contempt of his grammar school headmaster is surprising. Then again, Lewis was lucky to be mentored by a great writer.
In general people who shout out in cinemas should be thrown off the top of a multi story car park but one of Ted Lewis’s heckles is excellent. Very dark, very funny, just like his novels.
At this point reviewers often include a pointless quibble, as if it matters that that you don’t totally agree with two sentences in an entire book. Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon doesn’t seem that bad to me – maybe I’m a literary slob. It’s baggy with a few longeurs but you could say that about most literary novels. It is lazy and repetitive, like the later Hunter S Thompson, also not a great advert for alcoholism but still worth a look. I was not offended by some of his gay characters being ‘stereotypical’, similar characters can still be found in gay bars. (Can I say that? Being bisexual? Despised equally by straight and gay?) Sorry. It really doesn’t matter. This is a fascinating book, one to which I will return.
(2022 I just re read it. Utterly brilliant.)
Mark Ramsden: Congratulations on Getting Carter. Thoroughly researched. Well written. Was there anything that you had to leave out that might please sad obsessives such as myself?
Nick Triplow: Thanks Mark, it’s good of you to say so. The research element of the book had the potential to become one of those never-ending quests, so many rabbit holes and ideas. But I met some wonderful, generous people and learned a great deal about post war British life and how our culture was shaped by those experiences and still is to some extent. At the heart of the book is the not always easy reality, which is that Lewis’s life had its share of chaos. Quite often people told me stories that I couldn’t verify or that, while true, didn’t add anything to the story. I learned very early on in the process the extent to which many of the people that thought they knew him best only really knew the version of them he chose to reveal. That, in itself, is fascinating. But you can only afford to speculate where there’s a reasonable chance a something is true. If you offer too many vague write-arounds, the credibility of the book comes into question. I can stand by everything that’s in there and I pretty much used all I had.
MR: Has there been any new information since the book came out?
NT: There’s the revelation, which I did get to include in the paperback edition that his final novel, GBH, was written in six weeks. That was quite the insight. I think he responded to that pressure. I’ve also reached the conclusion that he wrote like a jazz musician plays a solo: by that I mean he took the work as far out as he dared, and then went further. There’s that fascinating interview with David Bowie, another grammar school / art school creative. He says: ‘…when you don’t feel your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.’ I think Lewis absolutely thrived in that environment of risk. Without that pressure, he didn’t do good work.
MR: You’ve just done a Crime Time interview with Paul Burke, which is well worth a listen. You mentioned your new novel, which is out on submission. It references people exploiting the post 7/7 climate. Is there more you can you tell us?
NT: What Paul and Victoria and Crime Time FM are doing is wonderful, building on that tradition Crime Time set as a print magazine back in the 90s. The novel is a crime thriller with a gritty political edge and noir sensibilities. It features a former Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer operating in that murky world between policing and intelligence. I won’t say too much about the story for obvious reasons, but it does ask questions about increased surveillance, who it benefits, and the use and abuse of power at the heart of the State. The concept is for this to be the first in a series of novels that explores a tipping point in our recent history.
MR: What are the chances of two really good Noir writers called Nick ending up in the same region?
(referencing Nick Quantrill)
NT: Fairly slim, I’d say. We’ve definitely used up our quota for the Humber. It does make it easier for people in meetings, only having the one name to remember.
MR: You’ve been involved with the Hull Noir Crime Fiction festival for some years now? Is it going from strength to strength?
NT: It will be. We’re in the process of putting together ideas as a precursor to applying for funding for a programme of events in 2022/23. I think, post-Covid, we’ve had a chance to look at how other similarly-sized festivals either developed or fell by the wayside. It makes sense to keep some of what we’ve learned: taking events online, for example, means we can reach audiences in different parts of the world. But I think people want to experience the dynamic and the buzz that comes with writers and audiences in the same room. I had a sense of that at Crime Fest last week. I guess we’re fortunate in many ways that, for Hull Noir, we’ve had a firm sense of our identity from the start. In part that comes from the city of Hull, its culture and its atmosphere, the people and a way of looking at the world. It’s a kind of punk / indie thing. Add to that the idea of Ted Lewis as a forefather of British crime and noir writing and our connection with his work, particularly the Get Carter story, and we feel that we’ve got something quite unique. We’ll certainly be doing something.
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Nick’s first novel Frank’s Wild Years is still available https://www.amazon.co.uk/Franks-Wild-Years-Nick-Triplow/dp/1907565140
If you’re interested in Ted Lewis both of these podcasts are essential
https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/crime-time-fm/nick-triplow-in-person-with-paul-part-1-getting-ca
https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/crime-time-fm/nick-triplow-in-person-with-paul-part-2-the-golden
Mark Ramsden 