Dan Starkey is a Belfast born and bred reporter (as is his
creator, Colin Bateman). He's a cynic and an alcoholic, and
so far, the hero (or more precisely, the anti-hero) of five
novels.
I wouldn't consider Dan to be the hero of all these books,
but in fact the stereotypical anti-hero. He suffers from many
flaws, he cheats on his wife constantly, is a hardened alcoholic,
smokes like a train, has doubts about his step son and how
he should treat another man's child, and hates the other man.
Dan also has a vulnerable side.
Anyone who is a Carl Hiaasen fan should read Bateman's novels.
(from harpercollins.com.au)
This is the fourth outing for Dan Starkey. How has he
developed as a character and how has your own relationship
with him developed?
Dan`s problem is that he hasn`t developed as a person - i.e.
he hasn`t really grown up whereas everyone around him has.
He keeps trying to get there and failing miserably; whereas
I am a perfectly rounded mature individual with no character
flaws at all. I just love writing him because I don`t have
to sit and think too deeply about him, he`s second nature
now.
Dan quips that 'the pen [is] mightier than the sword'.
How powerful is writing?
Well, I have a line in Cycle of Violence about the pen being
mightier than the sword right up to the point where someone
comes at you with a bloody great sword. Writing affects people
in different ways; hopefully what I do is entertainment; I
wouldn't say Karl Marx wrote entertainment, and his jokes
weren`t great, but he did probably change the world.
