The Midnight Man – Julie Anderson

In the wild

‘The Midnight Man’ is published and out in the wild. I’ve had an amazing week following its publication, with some tremendous reviews. My interview with Crime Time presenter Paul Burke was great fun, although recorded earlier (you can listen to it on the link below) and I’m doing more, with UK Crime Book Club on the 17th and Riverside Radio Arts on 24th May. In between there are book RCNTrailercropped clubs and libraries to visit where I’ll be talking about ‘The Midnight Man’ and the South London Hospital for Women and Children. Tomorrow I’m off to the Royal College of Nursing for the launch of their Summer exhibition and programme of events ‘Shining a Light’.

The RCN isn’t the only medical institution to be interested, the UK Association for the History of Nursing has asked for a copy and ‘The Midnight Man’ will feature in their journal and possibly on their website. The Fawcett Society has shown an interest and the Historic Novel Society is carrying a review. So lots of interest.

In the meanwhile I’ve been to see ‘Nye’ the new play by Tim Price, based on the life of Aneurin Bevan, Nye-National-Theatre-aw2-2000x1000-1 ‘founder’ of the National Health Service. Bevan, played by Michael Sheen, was Minister for Health in the Attlee government and the driving force behind the creation of the NHS, although he had to make compromises to force it through. I was pleased to see that the play represented the opposition of the some of the medical unions, something which is also referred to in ‘The Midnight Man’. We treasure the NHS now ( or should do, though I appreciate that many years of underfunding and ‘reorganisations’ has meant long delays and some deficiencies ) but, at the time it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that it would be set up, let alone survive. Yet, as the post curtain call stats shone on to the back of the stage show, it has saved many lives and alleviated much suffering, which National_Health_Service_(England)_logo.svg would not have been the case had it not existed.

The play also seeks to show the pain, anguish and anger caused when medicine is not available, because of the inability to pay for care, something I tried to do in ‘Midnight Man’ through the character of Phoebe. Tuberculosis was a killer disease, for which there was no cure, and which reached pandemic proportions at different times in its history. It was also highly contagious and sufferers were isolated, with their loved ones made to keep a distance from them (not unlike COVID).

I can certainly recommend the play and it is a remarkable performance by Sheen, with Sharon Small as Jennie Lee. It’s not the only recent West End play which features the period immediately post-war. Lucy Kirkwood’s ‘The Human Body’ starring Keeley Hawes and Jack Whitehall was at the Donmar until the end of last month, about post-war female emancipation and the NHS. Must be something in the zeitgeist.

I speak about some of this in the interview with Paul. If you’re interested you can hear that here.

Coincidence? Serendipity.

Art, Books, History, The Midnight Man

VicDowdPuff Only three weeks to go before my next book is published (by Hobeck Books) and I’ve received some very complimentary comments from fellow authors who have read proofs, like Vaseem Khan (award-winning author of the Malabar House series, set in 1950s India), Victoria Dowd (award-winning author of the Smart Woman series) and Elizabeth Buchan (multi-award winner and fellow south Londoner ). This is the enjoyable time, the pleasant anticipation, the dream of a best-seller, unsullied by one star reviews or poor sales numbers.

I’m busy making last minute promotional arrangements. Many are local, the book is set in Clapham Shining a Light Exhibition so I’ll be speaking at the Clapham Society and local libraries and book clubs. Some are London wide – the London Transport Museum is carrying the book in its shop and I’ll be working with them to be part of their events calendar. Some are national – so I’ll be part of the Royal College of Nursing’s Summer exhibition and events programme, which is taking place across the country. I’m looking forward to attending its launch on 10th May (see above).

And thereby hangs a tale. I was contacted by a representative of the RCN Museum and Library, having emailed the College to tell them about the book, largely because of its setting – the South London Hospital for Women and Children. This lady was enthusiastic about my taking part in their programme and we arranged a time to discuss that, but she also mentioned, as an aside, that she was related, by adoption, to one of the original founders of the South London Hospital, Maud Chadburn. Her father is the son of one of the children adopted by Maud and her partner in work and life, Eleanor Davies-Colley (the first woman admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons).

This was, as you can imagine, rather a surprise. Professions run in families, but Antonia was not a medic, though she worked for the RCN; a third generation involvement with nursing and medicine, albeit in a different capacity to her surgeon great grandmother. She told me lots of stories about Maud, known by the family as ‘Aunt Mary’ and sent me a photograph of her portrait, which currently hangs in Antonia’s mother’s house in London.

The portrait is believed to be by Henry Lamb, one of the Camden Town School of artists. According to the family story, it was offered to the Royal College of Surgeons, but they declined it, Maud never having been a member. There was, Antonia said, much speculation within the family about why Maud didn’t join. Eleanor certainly did and blazed a trail for others. Towards the end of Maud’s life ( she died in 1957 ) there must have been several women members and Maud could have joined too. So why didn’t she?

VasKhanPuff I don’t know the answer to that and neither did Antonia. I hope to be able to speak with her father, who has a fund of stories about ‘Aunt Mary’ which might be enlightening. Nonetheless, I like to think that Maud, who had probably developed something of a thick skin by this time – she was denounced from the pulpit by her minister father (he said he would rather she died than became a doctor) when she was younger and had to blaze trails in other ways, decided, rather like Groucho Marx, not to join any club which would have her as a member, especially one which, in years previously, would not admit her.

BirthCertif This is not the only remarkable coincidence attaching to this book. Early in the writing process, at first draft stage, I received an unanticipated invitation to a birthday celebration for a friend and couldn’t (for reasons too tedious to go into here) buy a birthday gift in time. So my gift was to name a character after my friend in the new book. I duly did so and, just prior to final editing, I sent her a copy of the manuscript. If she hadn’t liked ‘her’ character, or had had second thoughts about my using her name, she could withdraw and I would change the name. She and her partner, who also had a named character, were very happy, though she responded by sending me a copy of the birth certificate of her first born son. He was born at the South London Hospital in the 1970s! She had never mentioned where he was born (he now lives in Canada) so I had no idea. Thus, I found, my friend was a real patient at the real hospital as well as being a ‘character’ in the fictional version. What are the chances of that?

LizyPuff Two happy accidents; I hope they bode well for the book. ‘The Midnight Man’ is published by Hobeck Books on 30th April. I will be posting further pieces about it as the date approaches. Available for pre-order from Mr Besos’ emporium, Waterstones and Hobeck direct. Paperback at £10.99 and ebook £3.99.

N.B. Both Antonia and my old friend, Lesley, have given permission to be included and named in this blog post.

Film Noir 1946

Art, Books, The Midnight Man

MM_2 I am very pleased with the cover of my next novel, The Midnight Man. Created by graphic designer, Jayne Mapp for Hobeck Books, it captures well that 1940s film noir poster look which we wanted and many people who have seen it say how atmospheric and enticing it is. As part of its creation I made a ‘mood board’ for Jayne of film noir posters from the ’40s and, specifically, from 1946, when my book is set. I have, as those of you who follow me on social media will know, been sharing the posters which I collected, one a week, since earlier in the year. Today, when The Midnight Man goes on a number of platforms for pre-order (see below) I’d like to share some of them here.

1946 was a vintage year for film noir, with the release of classics like The Postman Always Rings Twice, Gilda, The Blue Dahlia, The Big Sleep, The Killers and, because there should always be a Hitchcock in a list of this type, Notorious. All a heady mix of violence, crime and passion, these films were hugely successful in their day and command cult status now. One of my own personal favourites and a film which influenced my novel is Green for Danger (dir. Sidney Gilliat) is also 1946 (see below).

40SFilmPostersThePostmanAlwaysRingsTwice 40SFilmPostersGilda

40SFilmPostersTheBlueDahlia 40SFilmPostersTheBigSleep

The posters for these films have a lot in common; you only need to look at them together to see the black or dark backgrounds, the portraits of the star or stars and the slanted or shadowed lettering and slightly risqué taglines. Indeed ‘Slinky, sultry, sensational‘ the tagline for The Big Sleep, might apply to any of them. If it hadn’t been 1946 the adjective ‘sexy’ would have probably also have been included. The British film (the first made at Pinewood Studios) is something of an outlier, its tagline being more cerebral ‘Murder weapon or clue?‘ Unfortunately, I know little about the artists behind these posters. Many were never credited, as the posters were churned out, initially by hand, for the big studios, who didn’t want the viewers’ focus distracted from the film. For those who want to know more, I suggest The Art of the Noir: The Posters and Graphics From the Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller (Overlook Books, 2014). This is, essentially, a catalogue of film noir posters.

The writers of the books and screenplays for these films were better known – Raymond Chandler wrote the novel The Big Sleep, but also the screenplay for The Blue Dahlia. His novel was adapted for the screen by Nobel Laureate William Faulkner, no less. And they inspired later writers; the hair tossing scene in Gilda inspired Stephen King to pen Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (as well as spawning a thousand GIFs). Ernest Hemingway got his name above the title in the poster for The Killers, Burt Lancaster’s debut film, although the screenplay was written by an uncredited John Huston and Richard Brooks and credited to Anthony Veiller.

40SFilmPostersTheKillers2 40SFilmPostersNotorious

Cinema films feature in all three books in the Clapham Trilogy, of which The Midnight Man is the first. In the era before television, it was the mass entertainment medium of the time and people went to the cinema regularly, sometimes several times a week. Some of my characters go to see A Matter of Life and Death at the Odeon, Balham Hill; the Powell and Pressburger film was the Royal Premiere of 1946. In the second book in the trilogy, set in 1948, the film is Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes. I am, as you may have realised, a Powell and Pressburger fan and t 40SFilmPostersGreenForDanger hereby hangs another tale, which I will doubtless return to.

I leave you with the rather different poster for Green for Danger, with Alastair Sim as a wonderfully lugubrious police detective, Inspector Cockrill of the Yard. Like the Hollywood posters it includes an image of a glamourous woman, but the focus is really on the detective (which I like). It was based on the book by Christianna Brand, who was married to a surgeon and got the idea for the story after watching him operating. She was, I am told, the author of the Nurse Matilda books, illustrated by her cousin Edward Ardizzoni. Nurse Matilda was the forerunner of Nanny McPhee.

The Midnight Man is now available for pre-order (published 30th April ) on Amazon for the paperback and ebook. If you do not shop at Mr Besos’ emporium there is Waterstones for the paperback and, of course, on the Hobeck website. If you want to support small, indie publishers ( and who doesn’t ) buy it direct from Hobeck!