Dan Waddell- The Blogger Rebooted

A few weeks ago, I asked Dan Waddell, ( the Friday blogger before me) to catch up with us in the ten years - was it ten years - since he last blogged.  Here is is, 

I'm questioning in pnk, he's answering in aubergine!

That was Dan Waddell, the fresh-faced, eager young author with cheekbones, high ideals and agog at the wonderful world of publishing. He is not to be confused with Dan Waddell, the frazzled 50-something bloke with a a deep-rooted cynicism about the often less-than-wonderful-world of publishing. 

 

2) What are you working on now? Journalism? Creative writing? Are they the same thing now? Cricket?

Since 2018 I’ve been working as a researcher for the Claimants and lawyers who have been during various newspapers for phone hacking and other criminal activities, which is still rumbling through the courts ten years on. (I actually wrote a bit about this for MiE when the scandal first emerged). I’m a recovering journalist so it was felt I could add some expertise, and some initial work has grown into a lot of work, and very interesting it has been, too. Rather than listen to me ramble on, you can actually watch me talk about it in this documentary https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001mxb5/scandalous-phone-hacking-on-trial

I still write, though I haven’t published anything for a while. That will change soon - not least because the work above has given me material for about three novels. I’m also trying to get a movie off the ground based on a non-fiction book I wrote, Field of Shadows, about a cricket tour by some English gentlemen to Nazi Germany in 1937 (which I also wrote about on MiE!  https://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2012/11/nicht-cricket-mein-fuhrer.html)

I still play cricket, even though at my age it’s probably not advisable. But the way I look it it, it helps me stave off a mid-life crisis and it’s better for me to wobble around a cricket pitch in undignified fashion than buy a motorbike and or start baking sourdough bread.

 

3) Given that you write fiction and non fiction, what do you find easier?

Non-fiction. I enjoy research, and if you’ve done lots of it the empty page is far less intimidating than with fiction.

 

4) Ten years since you've been on the blog, what is the biggest societal change in that time?

Sadly I’d have to say it’s the UK’s slide into the abyss. We’re in what my grandmother would have called a “right state” - Brexit and 13 years of Tory government have all but destroyed the place. 

Even more seriously, cricket teas have declined. Gone are the days of huge spreads of sandwiches, pies and cakes - now we get pasta and salad. Barely a slice of Battenberg or Malt Loaf to be seen anywhere. There are young cricketers who don’t know what it’s like to field for three hours while digesting huge slabs of sponge cake. Utterly scandalous

 

5) What book would you like to have written (excluding Harry Potter for the money) ?

Non-fiction - Hack Attack by Nick Davies, an excellent book about the phone hacking scandal (but which only really tells half the story - maybe some day, someone will tell the other half...)

Fiction - This is Memorial Device by David Keenan, a lovely novel about the post-punk scene in Airdrie in the 1980s (a bit niche, but I love it)

                                          

 

6) People who drink fancy coffee have cockapoos. Folk who watch cricket drink fine red wine. Discuss.

I’m with you on the cockapoos but not the cricket. My experiences of playing and watching cricket involve copious amounts of beer. Every season I put on weight, which is what makes it such a great sport. What other sport does everyone stop halfway through to eat pie and cake (or bloody pasta and salad)?

We have a beagle not a cockapoo. Beagle owners drink lots of alcohol because they are complete bastards.

 

7) Are you stll living in/around London? Do you love it?

Still in London and I have no plans to leave. It’s my home now and I love it, even if you have to sell a kidney to buy a pint of beer. Samuel Johnson said “If you’re tired of London you’re tired of life”  - but then he never had to pay £7.50 for a Guinness

 

8) Barbie or Oppenheimer?

Oppenheimer. Mainly because as the father of a daughter, I trod on too many Barbie bits and pieces to have anything other than loathing for all she stands for. Same with the Lego movies - standing on those are even more painful than a Barbie accessory

 

9) What are you reading right now?

This makes me sound as pretentious as hell but I’m re-reading Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It came up in a discussion with a friend - he says it’s overrated, I say it’s the finest novel ever. So I’m re-reading it and I reckon I’m right and he’s not.

 

 Or add anything else you want to say.... delete anything you don’t!

I’d like to say hello to the MiE writers and readers. I enjoyed writing for the blog immensely, though I don’t miss having to come up with an idea` to write about every week. But then two of the topics I wrote about spurred me on to write books about them, so it was worth it!