ABOUT TONY The Question of Research Is it a handicap to set a novel in the past; doesn't it make research that much more difficult? It's actually what appeals to me. The past is a foreign country to everyone; so the real challenge is that you select a journey that really is food for you and will sustain you—and your interest—over the long run. If you're moved to go back in time and motivated to stay the course, there are incredibly rich landscapes awaiting anyone that cares to go in search of them. The balance then, of course, is not to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information you discover or uncover. I have a sign next to my computer that says: 'Just because you know it, doesn't mean that the reader has to.' How do you do your research? I use the Internet when and where I can. Google is a brilliant tool. But just as with any seemingly rich vein of 'information' the real work is to sort 'the gold' from all the dross that surrounds it. And unless you're surfing in the hope that something will stop and jump out at you, the best way—as it is when using a dictionary or the Bible, and sometimes even the works of Shakespeare—is to enter into it only if you're armed with a question. Why did you chose to set your novel in London in the late nineteen forties? Everyone I met at the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference (1998) suggested that you should always write about what you know about. I knew and loved London. I was born into those austerity-ridden times, not that I knew it. But as I've come to realize over the years, it had an enormous impact on who and what I am and the way that I see the world. So for me it was really a journey of rediscovery. And I suppose the novel is, in part, me offering up some of the fruits of that journey. If nothing else, I hope The Smoke gives some small perspective on how people faced the defining problems of their day. How do you go about researching London? I lived in London for twenty or more years, so that gives me a solid basis. But living in California, I use the Internet to access institutions of every kind—the London Museum, Imperial War Museum, Pathe News, the National Archives. I've also collected photo books and atlases and travel writings of the period. I have books on London history, architecture, theatre, and crime; contemporary memoirs and autobiographies; anything and everything that can help give the important telling detail. A couple of favourite examples that various reviewers have picked out: The purple willow herbs that covered the bomb ruins around London Wall. That all the stagehands in the London of Shakespeare's time—and a lot of them since—were out-of-work seamen. That the term 'spiv' is Cockney back-slang for VIPs or Very Important Persons. © Tony Broadbent From an interview with journalist Adrian Muller.