Interview with Peter Temple

One of the unexpected pleasures of this holiday has been the radio. Specifically, Radio National. It’s not that I have been sitting here glued to the radio, rather, being on holidays, I have been able to switch the radio on at different moments during the day and find all sorts of great programmes to listen to. Take this morning, for instance. I’d just finished breakfast (jook with a salted egg – that’s another good thing about holidays, you can indulge in slow-cooked breakfasts), after doing a couple of loads of laundry, and was sitting idly at the computer when I switched the radio on, to discover that The Book Show was about to interview Peter Temple!

It was an interesting interview (which you can actually listen to online, should you feel so inclined; The Book Show is also available via podcast) during which Mr Temple discussed the genre of crime fiction, how he writes his books, his interests, and his observations on “the sounds”, both human and otherwise, of this country. The interview referred mainly to the latest novel, The Broken Shore, and about the issues the novel touches on: police corruption, black and white relations, rural development and sexual exploitation. Peter Temple doesn’t see himself as writing mere crime novels – he said that he “likes strong narratives” and uses the crime aspect of the story to “get the plot moving”. He argues that crime novels are capable of dealing with all sorts of issues – I’d agree, and agree that he does it really well. He made the point that he doesn’t tend to tie things up neatly, “with a big bow”, because life is messy and not like that. One thing I like about his novels is how he explores the (to me) usually hidden networks of power and influence beneath our cities, and how money is wielded by those who have it, to buy influence.

The interviewer (Ramona Koval) also asked Peter Temple about his experience of language in Australia. She suggested that, as he comes from South Africa, he is more sensitive to, more attuned to, the sounds of Australia. He agreed, and made an interesting point about having arrived here “after adolescence”, and therefore being able to hear, and continue to hear, the uniqueness of the way people speak here.

Peter Temple finds the sounds (human and otherwise) of this country very distinctive and very interesting. An example he gave was of the language of the pub, and he talked about how shocking it was to hear the “mock aggression” in the way men speak to each other in that environment, and how, to an outsider, it sounded at first like they were fighting, or that they disliked each other, when in reality it is a masculine way of expressing affection for each other. This made me laugh as it reminded me of my Dad’s reaction to the first time he was called a bastard – at first he took it as an affront and then quickly realised it was not an insult, and that it actually meant that he had been accepted!

I also learned that Peter Temple currently lives in Ballarat. (I was surprised by this, he writes so vividly of Melbourne that I just expected him to be a Melburnian!)

I practiced making notes as I listened, and ended up with two A4 sheets of notes. This time I used my Pilot capless fountain pen. This worked okay but next time I should perhaps try my tablet and see how that goes. (Just working on the theory that I am going to try and blog the conference in September, so I will need to take notes.)

Categories: PeterTemple, interview, RadioNational