Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
By profession I’m a journalist, and it’s a trade that in many ways has been very good to me over the years in a way in which I suspect will become more rare for young people entering the business these days. I count myself lucky to be able to earn a living working with words, which has always been my passion. I went straight into journalism after having graduated with a degree in English Literature.
My only diversion from this career path was a life-changing decision I took in 1982 to move to Greece and work as an English teacher on Crete. It really was an impulsive decision taken on the strength of seeing an advertisement in The Guardian for a teaching post and replying, with more hope than expectation, and being accepted.
It all happened quite quickly, and in no time at all I was heading to a country I knew little about, had never visited, couldn’t speak the language, knew nobody, had nowhere to live, and was starting a job I had never done before. Just thinking about it now fills me with terror, but the strange thing is that as soon as I stepped off that ferry in Heraklion, I felt at home. I was made to feel so welcome that I never doubted my decision or felt even a twinge of homesickness.
Although Greece is culturally the opposite in so many ways to where I was brought up in England I loved it from the start, and even now, knowing it well enough not to view the country through rose-tinted spectacles that affection has not diminished. I visit as often as I can, often several times a year. On returning to the UK and marrying I took up where I left off in journalism and have been lucky enough to work for the BBC, ITV and any number of national newspapers and magazines in various writing and editing capacities.
I am currently the editor of two of the UK’s best-known mass-market consumer titles and have published three books The Greek Islands – A Notebook; Crete – A Notebook and the recent Rhodes – A Notebook. You may notice something of a pattern emerging; it is turning into a series. Originally this was not my intention. When I started my first book I followed the age-old advice to write about something I knew and cared about but was unsure whether I had enough interesting material to produce a viable book. To my surprise I had more than enough, and the success of my first book about the Greek Islands encouraged me to write my second, this time more specific book, about Crete. My father was a successful novelist and I cannot remember a time when I was not surrounded by books and the paraphernalia of writing
I followed the Crete notebook with my recently published book about Rhodes, and there are another couple of islands I know well which I intent to complete the series with. After that, who knows…
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book just out is called Rhodes – A Notebook and is inspired by my visits to this memorable island, which to me, as well as its shared ‘Greekness’ has a spirit of place quite unique amongst the Greek islands. Whether it is the Gothic influence of the Knight’s Hospitaller or the legacy of the more recent Italian occupiers that have stamped their mark on this corner of Greece I’m not sure, but it feels very different and it draws me back time and again. I was lucky enough to visit there in the early Eighties and stay with some friends who lived on a small classic yacht based in Mandraki Harbour in Rhodes Old Town. We spent our days cruising the island’s coast and sailing further a field to islands like Symi just off the Turkish coast. It was a magical time, which I have never forgotten. Apart from some notable exceptions, which I won’t go into here, the island has changed little over the years since I first visited, if anything it scrubs up even better now.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know that I do. I have to be very disciplined and make a mental schedule, which I stick to rigorously from the start of a writing project until I finish. Because I am busy at work during the week I work on my commute to and from my office in London on the train and during my lunch break. At weekends I get up early and sit beside my dog on the sofa typing away until the rest of the family gets up a couple of hours later. The iPad has revolutionised my writing habits as it is truly portable and I find I can type on it easily anywhere.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I suppose it would be disingenuous to claim I had not been influenced by the books which I have read as I think we are all influenced in some way by all our experiences, but to pinpoint one author or book would be very hard for me. I have always had a voracious appetite for books from an early age and, in that I write about Greece, I do enjoy reading Nikos Kazantzakis, Lawrence Durrell and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Looking back to when I was much younger, my interest in literature was kindled by classics like the Brontes, Dickens, Hardy and the poetry of William Blake and as a student D.H. Lawrence and T.S. Eliot featured heavily on my reading list. Nowadays my taste is quite eclectic, I now enjoy reading crime writing from Michelle Giuttari, Andrea Camilleri, Henning Mankell, Anne Zouroudi, E. J. Russell and Jeffrey Siger, thrillers like the Stieg Larsson trilogy and Tom Rob Smith and modern narrative fiction from Victoria Hislop and Sara Alexi. I have recently just read a novel called Gold by Chris Cleave about Olympic cycling which was so breathtakingly brilliant it almost led me to give up trying to write… and even a book like Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking can be life changing.
What are you working on now?
Unimaginative as it may seem, I am carrying on in the same vein and writing a fourth book in the series, this time about Corfu. It is my intention to then publish a large compilation adding in chapters on some of the smaller islands, making a larger Greek Islands Notebook. I have a novel in planning stage, but I think I will leave that until I retire as I feel I need to devote a lot of time to the project to do it justice.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Like many writers, I am distinctly uncomfortable with the promotional side of the business and my reluctance to market my work makes me the last person to ask this question too. My first two books I essentially left to their own devices on Amazon and they seem to have taken on a life of their own. I have been dragged kicking and screaming onto facebook and am actually now enjoying it, and Awesomegang is my first real foray into a promotional website. I do write magazine features, which can cross-promote and have supplied copy to various websites as well. I do believe that positive reviews, especially on Amazon must help and adding reviews to the top of your book description on your Amazon listing can be no bad thing. I am learning more each day about promotion but the danger is that it takes me away from what I really enjoy, which is the writing itself.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Everyone is different, but this is what works for me: Write about something you are passionate about. Set aside a regular time to write and stick to it. Always write something, however much or little and do not stop to edit as you write, you can do that later. Open yourself up to criticism and do not be afraid to take it. Always have your work edited by someone else. Do not expect success, but aim to be the best you can be, the more you practice the better you will get.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never give up.
What are you reading now?
I have just finished New York by Edward Rutherfurd and Falling in Honey by Jennifer Barclay and today began The House on Paradise Street by Sofka Zinovieff.
What’s next for you as a writer?
For the moment I am content going on the way I am, working from one book to the next, hopefully improving as a writer all the time. Like most writer’s I have dreamed of having more time to work but also like most writers I am aware how easy it is to find diversions and not getting words down on the page. It is using the time I have that is important, not having more and wasting it. I would like to build up a body of work, which I hope is enjoyed by the people who read the books as much as I enjoy writing them
What is your favorite book of all time?
It is impossible to pick a favourite. I love Report to Greco by Kazantzakis, and A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens but a quirky, inspiring little book which is a joy (and probably out of print) is A Smile in the Mind’s Eye by Lawrence Durrell.
Author Websites and Profiles
Richard Clark Amazon Profile
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