The Punishment by Paul Clayton - Book Tour + Giveaway
The Punishment
What do you do when you are an ex-soap star down on your luck and running out of money?
For Daniel Maple, a chance meeting in a nightclub presents him with an offer he finds hard to refuse...
But crime makes you pay.
And someone, somewhere, wants you punished.
Purchase Links
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0825XSVX7
Author Q&A
Author Q&A
1. What
would you consider to be your Kryptonite as an author?
I don’t know whether
they're kryptonite, but I suppose it’s my ideas, my story, my life. “The
Punishment” is based on an incident that happened to me as a young actor. In
the book the central character takes a different route from what I did. There
is quite a lot of my life in there, people I know, incidents and emotions.
That’s also the case in the book I’m currently writing, so that if they do grab
the reader, then those things are my own personal kryptonite.
2. Favorite childhood
memory involving books?
At infant school land
in the first year of junior school we used to have storytime on a Friday
afternoon where our teacher would read to us for the last 15 minutes of the
day. That’s how I got to know the Narnia books and wanted to start reading them
for myself. I always remember “The Otterbury Incident” By CS Lewis which has a fabulous villain, and of course I
was part of the Jackanory generation. Every afternoon 15 minutes of being read
a book and quite often I would then rush to the library so that I could read
the full version. “Minnow On The Say” by Philippa Pearce is one that stays in
my mind
3. What fantastical
fictional world would you want to live in (if any) given the chance?
This is probably really
boring but I think I would like to be a
senior prefect at Hogwarts. I went to an
old redbrick Northern grammar school, but during my teenage years I used to
think of what it would be like to be at a public school. I used to devour the
“Jennings” books by Anthony Buckeridge. So a world in which there is a lot of
adventure, and there are always grown-ups around to sort out the problems.
4. Did you want to be
an author when you grew up?
I suppose I always
wanted to be a storyteller, but I knew that I wanted to be an actor from the
age of about seven. I coerced two members of my class at infant school into
doing a play which I had rehearsed and played the lead in. I have a memory of
it lasting half an hour and everybody being entranced. In reality it probably
lasted five minutes and the three of us just about got through it. But I loved
how a whole room of people could be gripped by the story and I wanted to do
more and more of it. Words have always fascinated me and after many years of
being fortunate enough to work on brilliant scripts, I wanted to see if I could
put words to paper that would also engage people. That would keep them on their
sun lounger, or make them stay up for another half an hour at night reading my
stories
5. If you had to
describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Tall, Yorkshire, fun.
6. What is your most
unusual writing quirk?
My typing is really
bad. As anybody who has had a text or an email from me will know it will be
full of errors. If I have to type for
too long I get bored, which really used to stop me writing. A long time ago I
read about how Barbara Cartland would lie on a chaise longue in the afternoon
and closed her eyes and dictate stories to a secretary. I couldn’t afford a
secretary, or even a chaise longue, but the world of voice-activated software
was a magical gift. In lockdown in particular, it’s been wonderful to go on a
long walk and speak out loud the next section of the story into my Dictaphone.
I then use software that transcribes what I have spoken, and then next day I will
read it through (it’s not perfect) and use that as the basis of the next
chapter that I want to work on. Telling stories is something that is a basic
skill for an actor, so to talk the story first is a great luxury. Of course,
some afternoons as I walk, I talk a load of balls and the delete key is much in
evidence the following morning.
7. What’s one movie
you like recommending to others?
It’s one that is great
fun called “Theatre of blood”. It’s from
1972 and it stars Vincent Price and Diana Rigg is an old Shakespearean actor
and his daughter who is denied an award and takes his revenge on the members of
the critics Circle. They all die in fabulously outrageous Shakespearean deaths.
The film is packed with famous faces playing the critics and the police and its
tongue is so far in its cheek, it must have had toothache. As a schoolboy I was
lucky enough to interview Diana Rigg shortly after she’d shot it and she made
it sound the most wonderful fun. I’m sad enough to say that I’ve probably seen
it about 20 times
8. Have you ever met
anyone famous?
Fame is very relative.
I know nothing about football and once I was directing a show which featured
David Platt and David Beckham. I had to say hello to them and then I uttered
the immortal line “Which David is which? There are some people who still make
me starstruck. I was lucky enough to work with Judi Dench in the 1980s and she
has become a great friend, and an actor I shared a dressing room with for 10
months in repertory in York way back in the 1970s is now one of the world’s
biggest film stars. Gary Oldman. I’m not famous as such, but when something’s
been on the telly that you’ve been in and you’ve invaded people’s living rooms
the previous evening, you can attract a certain amount of attention the next
day. I was once stood on a station platform signing an autograph and doing a
selfie for someone who had very kindly watched something I’ve been in. A youth
yelled across from the opposite platform “Oi, are you fucking famous then?”. It
had been a long day and I responded “Obviously not, as you have to fucking ask”
9. What is your
favorite genre to read?I love mystery and
crime and thrillers. I read far too many of them. I’m not massively keen on
anything set in America although recently that has changed a little and I
suppose my favourite setting would be something Victorian or Gothic. “The
Quincunx” by Charles Palliser and “The
Meaning of Night.” By Michael Cox I’ve
read most of Ruth Rendell several times and these days I’m very happy to slip
into bed with a new hot Ragnar Jonasson.
Author Bio
Clayton is an actor best known for his appearances as Ian Chapman in five series of the awardwinning Channel 4 comedy Peep Show and as Graham in two series of the BAFTA winning comedy Him and Her. Other credits include Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Holby City as well as This is Alan Partridge, Doctor Who, The Crown, Vera, Wolf. He is a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His previous books are So You Want To Be A Corporate Actor? and The Working Actor and he is a regular columnist in The Stage.
.
He is a proud patron of Grimm and Co, the children’s literacy charity, based in his home town of Rotherham.
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