April 26, 2025 • 15 mins
Epic thriller All the Colours of Dark was one of the must-read books of 2024 - but author Chris Whitaker's road to success was a long one.
Whitaker has suffered his share of trauma - childhood abuse, stabbing, and losing millions of pounds as a stockbroker.
He turned to writing - a move he credits with saving his life.
Ahead of his upcoming appearance at Auckland Writers Festival, Whitaker says it was a 'vulnerable' place putting his creative work out for audience approval.
"It felt like I didn't have anything else to offer - that was then, obviously, but now I've started writing a new book and I'm in love with that."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb epic thriller All the Colors of Dark was one
of the must read books of twenty twenty four, but
the road to success for its author, Chris Whittaker has
been far from plain sailing. Chris has suffered his share
of trauma. There was childhood abuse, He's been stabbed and
as a stockbroker he lost a million pounds. So all
of this Chris turned to writing, a move he credits
(00:33):
with saving his life. Chris Whittaker is heading to the
News is heading to New Zealand this month for the
Auckland Writers' Festival, and I'm delighted to have him join
me now from London.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Chris, good morning, Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So good to talk to you. All the Colors of
the Dark. The book falls under the crime thriller banner,
but it is a lot more than that, isn't it.
This book is an epic tale. I'm sure that you're
proud of all your books, but does this one? Is
this a special achievement to you? This one?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I think, I think this is the best book that
I've ever written or could write at the time. I
never get nervous for anything that I do, but I
was really nervous publishing this book because it felt it
was kind of a vulnerable place to be in, you know,
knowing that you can't do any better, so that if
people don't like it, it's like I don't have anything
(01:22):
else to offer. That was then, obviously, but now I've
started writing a new book, so I'm in love with that.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I did feel nervous about it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Your next Beast book is on its way, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, hopefully. I mean it's I haven't stopped traveling. I
think the tour began last June and I haven't stopped.
I don't stop until this December, so it will be
a year and a half of touring, which is a
long time. Were you anticipating that, No, definitely, notice, I
mean it's unusual. And the last book we begin at
the end that was that was kind of a best
seller and a big book, but because it published during COVID,
(01:57):
I didn't get to travel anywhere. I had to do
all of the events on zoom, which was fun, but
it was you kind of felt slightly detached. I was
unprepared for the amount of traveling, but I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It must be lovely though, actually engaging with your readers,
people who've enjoyed this book so much.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, it's a really special thing actually to go around
and meet the different readers and from different countries. I
think I've been on I will have been on about
seven American tours by the time we finished this year.
So to set the book there and then go and
see the places for the first time where the story
is set has been really special as well.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
We'll talk about that in just a moment. You talk
about Patch being inspired by Vins in your own childhood.
Can you talk me through that and the impact your
own childhood head on you.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
So I was writing the book and I was writing
some scenes where Patch has been abducted and he's being
held in the dark in the basement, and I found
it really difficult to write those, and I didn't really
work out why. But then I was thinking back through
my life all the good and bad things that have
happened to me, and I kind of traced everything back
(03:05):
to being I was around ten years old, and there
was an adult that came into my life after my
parents divorced, and he was violent with me, and one
evening I was asleep and he pulled me out of
bed by my arm and broke my arm. And he
kind of panicked and didn't want to get into trouble
and so sent me back to my bedroom and told
(03:26):
me to not make any noise and to stay there
until the morning, and in the morning to tell my
parents I had done it playing football. So as a
ten year old, I had this really long night in
a lot of pain, not being able to make any noise,
and then afterwards kind of felt different. I felt a
bit like the first ten years of my life. I
was a normal kid, and then all of a sudden
(03:47):
everything was different, and I stopped doing well at school
and got into trouble and my life just took a
complete detour. And it was something that informed the character
of Patch, who is who goes through some trauma when
he's thirteen then and spends kind of the rest of
the story trying to find his way back again.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
T that you leave school without any qualifications.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, nothing at all. Yeah, I am.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
The night before my economics exit, I went out and
got really drunk and messed up my examine. I got
a grade N which my economics teacher said stood for
no future, which is the meanest thing I think a
teacher could possibly say to a student.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Then, at nineteen, you were mugged and got stabbed, and
this also hit a huge impect on you.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
It did. Yeah, yeah, I was out.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I was just out in London one morning working and
someone came up and mugged me for my phone and
we had a bit of a fight and I was
stabbed three times. And it was physically I was okay.
I lost some blood and had some scars and stitches,
and mentally I was completely unprepared for what came next.
And I didn't know what PTSD was, and I had
(04:55):
no experience of it. I didn't as a kid, as
a ten year old, I'd learned if something bad happens,
you don't ask for help. So I was trying to
deal with this terrible thing on my own and didn't
know how to. And eventually I ended up in the
library and I borrowed a self help book of writing
a therapy book, and that was that was the first
time I'd written anything since school, and the first time
(05:16):
i'd written kind of creatively. And yes, so it had
this terrible thing that happened, without a doubt, wouldn't be
sat here now talking to you about this book.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But before you got to writing, you became a stockbroker,
which I did was quite random considering this story. So
you did go back to school, you got qualification, and
then and then you became a stockbroker.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I did well.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I just by chance picked up a newspaper and there
was a picture of a stockbroker and there was a
photo of a guy with a ferrari and I think
he had a yacht or something, or a private jet.
It was one of those those pictures that you look
at and you think this can't be real. And I
thought straight awall, I'm going to be a stockbroker. You
know I want this life. I'm quite impulsive. So I
went and paid for my exams and studied really hard
(06:05):
and passed them, and then got a job in the city.
And I started out doing client entertaining, which was going
out and drinking lots of clients and staying out all night.
And I was really good at that. And then my
boss said to me, I really wanted to work on
the trading desk, and he said, if you lose ten
thousand pounds, you stopped trading.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That was kind of my limit.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
And on my first day I lost a million pounds
and didn't tell anyone because as a kid, I'd learned
if something bad happens, don't tell anyone. So I got
myself into a world of trouble because it's illegal, and
ended up in having to pay back half of it myself.
So I was twenty four and in half a million
pounds of debt. So it wasn't a successful venture into
(06:47):
the city.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh my god, what happens to a stockbroker when they
lose a million dollars?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
They get into loads of trouble and then if they're
very lucky, they have a forgiving boss who half of it.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So I got to pay back half of it.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And I spent about five years working that debt off,
paid it all back, and then was nearly thirty and
kind of looked back over my life and thought, what
is the one thing that I keep turning to when
I'm in trouble, what makes me feel better, What's helped
me more than anything?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And it was writing.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
And so at thirty, I quit my job and kind
of upended my life and sold my house and my
car and yeah, and began writing, and then like thirteen
years later I now sat here talking to you.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
So it wasn't like a quick process.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
I wrote a couple of books that did well critically
but didn't sell all that well before we begin at
the end kind of changed my life.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I did laugh in one interview talk about your brother
who questioned your career decisions every two and when you
told him that you were going to be a stockbroker,
he told you that you were rubbish at myths. And
then we did de spain to become a writer. He
said you couldn't spell HESI becktrecked on questioning your ambitions
as a writer. R.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's so funny because he hasn't Actually he doubles down.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
He's one of those like, you know, he can't quite
he's very he's like, we're very close, and he's very
proud of me. But I think both of us can't
quite believe you know that I'm an author.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It just it just seems really bizarre.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Is it an overstatement or sort of a bit grandiose
to say that writing saved your life? Or is that
how you did manage to deal with all these big
traumatic life events.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's with it.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
It sounds kind of sensational, but it's without a doubt true.
You know, I felt like after being stabbed and after
losing the money two times in my life, I felt
suicidal and really didn't know what to do. You know,
I was trying everything. I was prescribed antidepressants and I
didn't want to take them, and I did have some problems.
I was drinking and taking drugs, and you know, I
(08:52):
was in a really really bad way. And I can't
kind of overstate how much writing saved me. You know,
I don't know where I would be without it, Possibly
not here. Certainly I wouldn't have been you know, I
wouldn't have changed my life in the way that I did.
And I was very unhappy in the city, so I
probably would have left there.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
But I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's been really difficult because I think financially, by the
time I paid the debt back, I was starting to
earn good money and I had everything that I thought
made me successful. You know, when you have an image
when you're young, you know, a nice house, nice car,
you're on a good job. And I had all these things,
and I was married and there was a baby coming.
You know, I had everything I ticked every box, but
(09:36):
I was just so desperately unhappy. And that was quite frightening,
I think at the time, because I thought I didn't
know what was wrong with me, but I knew it
was something, and it was something serious, and I knew
I had to do something about it. But it seemed
so extreme, you know, because everyone kept telling me writing
was a hobby, and I think everyone thought it was
kind of crazy. Certainly my friends in the city thought
(09:57):
I was insane, you know, when I said I'm quitting
my job and I'm going to write a book.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And I think the average salary for an author in the.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
UK is seven pounds, which you know, so far below
the living wage, and that is probably what I earned
for years from writing. So I worked three jobs and
missed a lot of my kids growing up and felt
like I had done this big, kind of selfish thing.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And now you're touring a book for two years. Let's
talk about the novels, because you see a lot of
them in America, and you are quite often told people
expect you to be American because you write such a
convincing American story. Why did you choose to sit the
books in America?
Speaker 4 (10:35):
So it's always the ultimate compliment when people are surprised
that I'm not American, because it means I've done my
job right and they kind of haven't really considered me
and they've just thought about the characters, which is what
I want. So when I did writing as therapy originally
after I was stabbed when I was nineteen, the self
help book it taught a technique where you write about
the trauma. So you take the stabbing and you write
(10:56):
about it. But there were these rules that you had
to follow. So you have to change the people involved
to fictional characters. You have to change the outcome to
something you can control, and you have to change the
location to the last place you were happy. And at nineteen,
I look back to find, you know, where I remembered
being really happy. And my parents flew up when I
(11:18):
was quite young, and I'm really close with my dad
and I missed him terribly. All of a sudden he
wasn't around, and he took my brother and I to
Disney World in Florida. So when I was looking for
my happy place to set my writing, it was America.
And so my life could be falling apart in London
in the UK, but I could mentally travel four thousand miles.
(11:39):
I could leave my desk, travel away, leave all my
problems behind, and just have this huge kind of blank
canvas to tell my stories on. And it really works,
and it still works today. You know, every time I
sit down, I need their escapism.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Chris. It's not just the seating and the dialogue and
the characters that you write that are so convincing, but
also the fact all the colors are the dark. It
happens over such a long period of time, and there's
a lot hepning in those years. I'm just in society
and historically, clearly a lot of research has gone into
this book. A lot of time in the library, I think.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, well, I was working in the library.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It was one of my many jobs that I did
while I was writing, and probably my favorite job that
I loved.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
The library.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I used to do baby rhyme time, which I loved
so like singing the rhymes to all the kids while
they climb all over you.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
It's really fun. But so whenever I had free time
in the.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Library, I would use all the resources, you know, I
would read endless nonfiction books and travel guides, and I
would look at old newspaper archives, and I would kind
of learn about the nature and geography and all of
the news that was going on at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
You know, I really immersed myself in it.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
And the book took four years to write, and I
think probably half of that, you know, is because I
spent so long kind of crafting every scene and making
it feel as authentic as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So I was writing quite an obsessive thing for.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
You, I think.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
So I think it's really hard to let go. It's
really hard to move forward when I'm working on a paragraph,
like I need it to be perfect, and it can
often take me. Like there's a scene in the book
where Patch gets a job in a mine.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
It's a really brief scene.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I think it ended up being a paragraph long, but
it took me a month to write it because I
learned everything there was to learn about mining and Missouri
in the seventies and eighties, and I overwrote the scene
and then cut it and cut it, and I kind
of do that for every scene in the book.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
How do you feel about Universal Pictures developing all the
colors of the dag. It's an interesting one, isn't it,
Because as a reader, I'm very I'm fond of these characters,
and you get quite pretty I mean I get quite
pretictive over these characters in this book. I didn't even
write it, So how does it feel for you?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I think that although they mean everything to me and
my stories could not mean more to me, I'm not
precious about this process, like editorially, I know some authors
that find it really hard to be edited. But I
love it because it's a fresh set of eyes coming
in and they can see things that I'm too close
to see. So the same is true of TV. You
(14:11):
know that I understand that it needs to exist in
a different format. It's never going to be the book,
and it shouldn't be the book, you know. I've read
episode one and two and it's it's kind of really
faithful yet original at the same time, and I'm really
excited about it. You know, I'm going to watch it
like you know, when it gets made. I'm going to
watch it like a fan, you know, like I would
(14:33):
any piece of television and try and kind of disconnect
slightly from the book that I've written.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Chris, thank you so much for your time to die.
Very excited that you were coming to the Auckland Writers' Festival.
I look forward to seeing you on your in the
panel the scene of the crime. I shall be attending
and really looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Thank you so much. I can't wait to come and
see That.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Was author of All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker.
As I mentioned, he's hitting here for the Auckland Writers
Festival from the thirteenth to the eighteenth of May. For
more information head to writers Festival dot co, dot and
z and if you haven't a really read the book,
I recommen to pack it up a copy.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb epic thriller All the Colors of Dark was one
of the must read books of twenty twenty four, but
the road to success for its author, Chris Whittaker has
been far from plain sailing. Chris has suffered his share
of trauma. There was childhood abuse, He's been stabbed and
as a stockbroker he lost a million pounds. So all
of this Chris turned to writing, a move he credits
(00:33):
with saving his life. Chris Whittaker is heading to the
News is heading to New Zealand this month for the
Auckland Writers' Festival, and I'm delighted to have him join
me now from London.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Chris, good morning, Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So good to talk to you. All the Colors of
the Dark. The book falls under the crime thriller banner,
but it is a lot more than that, isn't it.
This book is an epic tale. I'm sure that you're
proud of all your books, but does this one? Is
this a special achievement to you? This one?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I think, I think this is the best book that
I've ever written or could write at the time. I
never get nervous for anything that I do, but I
was really nervous publishing this book because it felt it
was kind of a vulnerable place to be in, you know,
knowing that you can't do any better, so that if
people don't like it, it's like I don't have anything
(01:22):
else to offer. That was then, obviously, but now I've
started writing a new book, so I'm in love with that.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I did feel nervous about it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Your next Beast book is on its way, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, hopefully. I mean it's I haven't stopped traveling. I
think the tour began last June and I haven't stopped.
I don't stop until this December, so it will be
a year and a half of touring, which is a
long time. Were you anticipating that, No, definitely, notice, I
mean it's unusual. And the last book we begin at
the end that was that was kind of a best
seller and a big book, but because it published during COVID,
(01:57):
I didn't get to travel anywhere. I had to do
all of the events on zoom, which was fun, but
it was you kind of felt slightly detached. I was
unprepared for the amount of traveling, but I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It must be lovely though, actually engaging with your readers,
people who've enjoyed this book so much.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, it's a really special thing actually to go around
and meet the different readers and from different countries. I
think I've been on I will have been on about
seven American tours by the time we finished this year.
So to set the book there and then go and
see the places for the first time where the story
is set has been really special as well.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
We'll talk about that in just a moment. You talk
about Patch being inspired by Vins in your own childhood.
Can you talk me through that and the impact your
own childhood head on you.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
So I was writing the book and I was writing
some scenes where Patch has been abducted and he's being
held in the dark in the basement, and I found
it really difficult to write those, and I didn't really
work out why. But then I was thinking back through
my life all the good and bad things that have
happened to me, and I kind of traced everything back
(03:05):
to being I was around ten years old, and there
was an adult that came into my life after my
parents divorced, and he was violent with me, and one
evening I was asleep and he pulled me out of
bed by my arm and broke my arm. And he
kind of panicked and didn't want to get into trouble
and so sent me back to my bedroom and told
(03:26):
me to not make any noise and to stay there
until the morning, and in the morning to tell my
parents I had done it playing football. So as a
ten year old, I had this really long night in
a lot of pain, not being able to make any noise,
and then afterwards kind of felt different. I felt a
bit like the first ten years of my life. I
was a normal kid, and then all of a sudden
(03:47):
everything was different, and I stopped doing well at school
and got into trouble and my life just took a
complete detour. And it was something that informed the character
of Patch, who is who goes through some trauma when
he's thirteen then and spends kind of the rest of
the story trying to find his way back again.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
T that you leave school without any qualifications.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, nothing at all. Yeah, I am.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
The night before my economics exit, I went out and
got really drunk and messed up my examine. I got
a grade N which my economics teacher said stood for
no future, which is the meanest thing I think a
teacher could possibly say to a student.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Then, at nineteen, you were mugged and got stabbed, and
this also hit a huge impect on you.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
It did. Yeah, yeah, I was out.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I was just out in London one morning working and
someone came up and mugged me for my phone and
we had a bit of a fight and I was
stabbed three times. And it was physically I was okay.
I lost some blood and had some scars and stitches,
and mentally I was completely unprepared for what came next.
And I didn't know what PTSD was, and I had
(04:55):
no experience of it. I didn't as a kid, as
a ten year old, I'd learned if something bad happens,
you don't ask for help. So I was trying to
deal with this terrible thing on my own and didn't
know how to. And eventually I ended up in the
library and I borrowed a self help book of writing
a therapy book, and that was that was the first
time I'd written anything since school, and the first time
(05:16):
i'd written kind of creatively. And yes, so it had
this terrible thing that happened, without a doubt, wouldn't be
sat here now talking to you about this book.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But before you got to writing, you became a stockbroker,
which I did was quite random considering this story. So
you did go back to school, you got qualification, and
then and then you became a stockbroker.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I did well.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I just by chance picked up a newspaper and there
was a picture of a stockbroker and there was a
photo of a guy with a ferrari and I think
he had a yacht or something, or a private jet.
It was one of those those pictures that you look
at and you think this can't be real. And I
thought straight awall, I'm going to be a stockbroker. You
know I want this life. I'm quite impulsive. So I
went and paid for my exams and studied really hard
(06:05):
and passed them, and then got a job in the city.
And I started out doing client entertaining, which was going
out and drinking lots of clients and staying out all night.
And I was really good at that. And then my
boss said to me, I really wanted to work on
the trading desk, and he said, if you lose ten
thousand pounds, you stopped trading.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That was kind of my limit.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
And on my first day I lost a million pounds
and didn't tell anyone because as a kid, I'd learned
if something bad happens, don't tell anyone. So I got
myself into a world of trouble because it's illegal, and
ended up in having to pay back half of it myself.
So I was twenty four and in half a million
pounds of debt. So it wasn't a successful venture into
(06:47):
the city.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh my god, what happens to a stockbroker when they
lose a million dollars?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
They get into loads of trouble and then if they're
very lucky, they have a forgiving boss who half of it.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So I got to pay back half of it.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And I spent about five years working that debt off,
paid it all back, and then was nearly thirty and
kind of looked back over my life and thought, what
is the one thing that I keep turning to when
I'm in trouble, what makes me feel better, What's helped
me more than anything?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And it was writing.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
And so at thirty, I quit my job and kind
of upended my life and sold my house and my
car and yeah, and began writing, and then like thirteen
years later I now sat here talking to you.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
So it wasn't like a quick process.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
I wrote a couple of books that did well critically
but didn't sell all that well before we begin at
the end kind of changed my life.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I did laugh in one interview talk about your brother
who questioned your career decisions every two and when you
told him that you were going to be a stockbroker,
he told you that you were rubbish at myths. And
then we did de spain to become a writer. He
said you couldn't spell HESI becktrecked on questioning your ambitions
as a writer. R.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's so funny because he hasn't Actually he doubles down.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
He's one of those like, you know, he can't quite
he's very he's like, we're very close, and he's very
proud of me. But I think both of us can't
quite believe you know that I'm an author.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It just it just seems really bizarre.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Is it an overstatement or sort of a bit grandiose
to say that writing saved your life? Or is that
how you did manage to deal with all these big
traumatic life events.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's with it.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
It sounds kind of sensational, but it's without a doubt true.
You know, I felt like after being stabbed and after
losing the money two times in my life, I felt
suicidal and really didn't know what to do. You know,
I was trying everything. I was prescribed antidepressants and I
didn't want to take them, and I did have some problems.
I was drinking and taking drugs, and you know, I
(08:52):
was in a really really bad way. And I can't
kind of overstate how much writing saved me. You know,
I don't know where I would be without it, Possibly
not here. Certainly I wouldn't have been you know, I
wouldn't have changed my life in the way that I did.
And I was very unhappy in the city, so I
probably would have left there.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
But I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's been really difficult because I think financially, by the
time I paid the debt back, I was starting to
earn good money and I had everything that I thought
made me successful. You know, when you have an image
when you're young, you know, a nice house, nice car,
you're on a good job. And I had all these things,
and I was married and there was a baby coming.
You know, I had everything I ticked every box, but
(09:36):
I was just so desperately unhappy. And that was quite frightening,
I think at the time, because I thought I didn't
know what was wrong with me, but I knew it
was something, and it was something serious, and I knew
I had to do something about it. But it seemed
so extreme, you know, because everyone kept telling me writing
was a hobby, and I think everyone thought it was
kind of crazy. Certainly my friends in the city thought
(09:57):
I was insane, you know, when I said I'm quitting
my job and I'm going to write a book.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And I think the average salary for an author in the.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
UK is seven pounds, which you know, so far below
the living wage, and that is probably what I earned
for years from writing. So I worked three jobs and
missed a lot of my kids growing up and felt
like I had done this big, kind of selfish thing.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And now you're touring a book for two years. Let's
talk about the novels, because you see a lot of
them in America, and you are quite often told people
expect you to be American because you write such a
convincing American story. Why did you choose to sit the
books in America?
Speaker 4 (10:35):
So it's always the ultimate compliment when people are surprised
that I'm not American, because it means I've done my
job right and they kind of haven't really considered me
and they've just thought about the characters, which is what
I want. So when I did writing as therapy originally
after I was stabbed when I was nineteen, the self
help book it taught a technique where you write about
the trauma. So you take the stabbing and you write
(10:56):
about it. But there were these rules that you had
to follow. So you have to change the people involved
to fictional characters. You have to change the outcome to
something you can control, and you have to change the
location to the last place you were happy. And at nineteen,
I look back to find, you know, where I remembered
being really happy. And my parents flew up when I
(11:18):
was quite young, and I'm really close with my dad
and I missed him terribly. All of a sudden he
wasn't around, and he took my brother and I to
Disney World in Florida. So when I was looking for
my happy place to set my writing, it was America.
And so my life could be falling apart in London
in the UK, but I could mentally travel four thousand miles.
(11:39):
I could leave my desk, travel away, leave all my
problems behind, and just have this huge kind of blank
canvas to tell my stories on. And it really works,
and it still works today. You know, every time I
sit down, I need their escapism.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Chris. It's not just the seating and the dialogue and
the characters that you write that are so convincing, but
also the fact all the colors are the dark. It
happens over such a long period of time, and there's
a lot hepning in those years. I'm just in society
and historically, clearly a lot of research has gone into
this book. A lot of time in the library, I think.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, well, I was working in the library.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It was one of my many jobs that I did
while I was writing, and probably my favorite job that
I loved.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
The library.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I used to do baby rhyme time, which I loved
so like singing the rhymes to all the kids while
they climb all over you.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
It's really fun. But so whenever I had free time
in the.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Library, I would use all the resources, you know, I
would read endless nonfiction books and travel guides, and I
would look at old newspaper archives, and I would kind
of learn about the nature and geography and all of
the news that was going on at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
You know, I really immersed myself in it.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
And the book took four years to write, and I
think probably half of that, you know, is because I
spent so long kind of crafting every scene and making
it feel as authentic as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So I was writing quite an obsessive thing for.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
You, I think.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
So I think it's really hard to let go. It's
really hard to move forward when I'm working on a paragraph,
like I need it to be perfect, and it can
often take me. Like there's a scene in the book
where Patch gets a job in a mine.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
It's a really brief scene.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I think it ended up being a paragraph long, but
it took me a month to write it because I
learned everything there was to learn about mining and Missouri
in the seventies and eighties, and I overwrote the scene
and then cut it and cut it, and I kind
of do that for every scene in the book.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
How do you feel about Universal Pictures developing all the
colors of the dag. It's an interesting one, isn't it,
Because as a reader, I'm very I'm fond of these characters,
and you get quite pretty I mean I get quite
pretictive over these characters in this book. I didn't even
write it, So how does it feel for you?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I think that although they mean everything to me and
my stories could not mean more to me, I'm not
precious about this process, like editorially, I know some authors
that find it really hard to be edited. But I
love it because it's a fresh set of eyes coming
in and they can see things that I'm too close
to see. So the same is true of TV. You
(14:11):
know that I understand that it needs to exist in
a different format. It's never going to be the book,
and it shouldn't be the book, you know. I've read
episode one and two and it's it's kind of really
faithful yet original at the same time, and I'm really
excited about it. You know, I'm going to watch it
like you know, when it gets made. I'm going to
watch it like a fan, you know, like I would
(14:33):
any piece of television and try and kind of disconnect
slightly from the book that I've written.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Chris, thank you so much for your time to die.
Very excited that you were coming to the Auckland Writers' Festival.
I look forward to seeing you on your in the
panel the scene of the crime. I shall be attending
and really looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Thank you so much. I can't wait to come and
see That.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Was author of All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker.
As I mentioned, he's hitting here for the Auckland Writers
Festival from the thirteenth to the eighteenth of May. For
more information head to writers Festival dot co, dot and
z and if you haven't a really read the book,
I recommen to pack it up a copy.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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