|
Sixty seconds with Catherine Sampson...
Catherine Sampson has spent about 15 of the last 27 years in China, including studying, teaching and working as the Beijing correspondent for The Times. Her first crime novel was Falling Off Air. Her third and fourth books, The Pool of Unease and The Slaughter Pavilion, are both set in China.
RTE: Describe yourself in a sentence?
Sampson: A British writer who’s lived longer in Beijing than anywhere else in her life and who suspects there’s no place in the world that makes a better setting for murder.
RTE: What's the one record you'd take to a desert island?
Sampson: Some Indonesian gamelan music to make me feel as though I’m on holiday, even if I’m stuck there.
RTE: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Sampson: A writer.
RTE: Who's your oldest friend?
Sampson: My family.
RTE: If I ruled the world...
Sampson: Ordinary people in China would have more access to the law.
RTE: Which book do you wish you'd written?
Sampson: Anything by Donna Leon.
RTE: What makes you angry?
Sampson: Call centres, online complaints procedures and Communist Party propaganda.
RTE: Name your five dream dinner party guests.
Sampson: All working in Beijing: The director of a prison, a state security bureau agent, a private detective, a high-ranking police officer, and a forensic scientist. They probably wouldn’t trust each other enough to have a conversation, so I’d have to invite them separately. Most likely they’d politely turn down the invitation.
RTE: Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Sampson: Dick Cheney.
RTE: What inspired you to start writing?
Sampson: Everything.
RTE: Where would you most like to live?
Sampson: Beijing, but miraculously clear of pollution and transplanted so it’s just an hour’s flight from Heathrow.
RTE: Sum up your latest book in no more than 12 words.
Sampson: Private detective Song reluctantly investigates a father’s final, shocking act of despair.
Sixty seconds with Chris Knopf...
Sixty seconds with Connie Dial...
Sixty seconds with Linwood Barclay...
Sixty seconds with Betty Webb...
Sixty seconds with Jonathan Kellerman...
Sixty seconds with Alison Bruce...
Sixty seconds with Laura Childs...
Sixty seconds with Liza Marklund...
Sixty seconds with Carin Gerhardsen...
Sixty seconds with Johnny Temple...
Sixty seconds with David Barrie...
Sixty seconds with Ben Aaronovitch...
Sixty seconds with D. E. Meredith...
Sixty seconds with Max Kinnings...
Sixty seconds with Louise Welsh...
Sixty seconds with Catriona McPherson...
Sixty seconds with Anne Zouroudi...
Sixty seconds with Val McDermid...
Sixty seconds with Barry Fantoni...
Sixty seconds with J A Jance...
Sixty seconds with Peter Lovesey...
Sixty seconds with Alex Gray...
Sixty seconds with Noah Hawley...
Sixty seconds with Jefferson Bass...
Sixty seconds with Howard Shrier...
Sixty seconds with David Thomas...
Sixty seconds with Matt Hilton...
Sixty seconds with Adrian Magson...
Sixty seconds with Lindsey Davis...
Sixty seconds with Sue Grafton...
Sixty seconds with Cath Staincliffe...
Sixty seconds with Paul Johnson...
Sixty seconds with Stuart Neville...
Sixty seconds with Simon Brett...
Sixty seconds with Andrew Martin...
Sixty seconds with Tess Gerritsen...
Sixty seconds with Garry Ryan...
Sixty seconds with Phil Rickman...
Sixty seconds with Neil White...
Sixty seconds with Mons Kallentoft...
Sixty seconds with Teresa Solana...
Sixty seconds with Frederick Forsyth...
Sixty seconds with Alan Bradley...
Sixty seconds with Simon Beckett...
Sixty seconds with Cara Black...
Sixty seconds with Alafair Burke...
Sixty seconds with Tony Park...
Sixty seconds with Robert Goddard...
Sixty seconds with S J Bolton...
Sixty seconds with Alex Kava...
Sixty seconds with Clem Chambers...
Sixty seconds with Colin Cotterill...
Sixty seconds with C J Box...
Sixty seconds with Barbara D'Amato...
Sixty seconds with Karen Rose...
Sixty seconds with Karen Rose...
Sixty seconds with Sophie Hannah...
Sixty seconds with Åke Edwardson...
Sixty seconds with Bryan Gruley...
Sixty seconds with Elena Forbes...
Sixty seconds with Kate Ellis...
Sixty seconds with Karin Slaughter...
Sixty seconds with Andrew Grant...
Sixty seconds with Quintin Jardine...
Sixty seconds with John Harvey...
Sixty seconds with Zoë Sharp...
Sixty seconds with Colin Bateman...
Sixty seconds with Jeremy Duns...
Sixty seconds with Lisa Lutz...
Sixty seconds with Malla Nunn...
Sixty seconds with Jeffery Deaver...
Sixty seconds with Joanne Harris...
Sixty seconds with James Sallis...
Sixty seconds with Martin Edwards...
Sixty seconds with Alan Glynn...
Sixty seconds with Dominique Manotti...
Sixty seconds with Lee Child...
Sixty seconds with Kathryn Fox...
Sixty seconds with Martin Walker...
Sixty seconds with Marcus Sakey...
Sixty seconds with Chris Mooney...
Sixty seconds with Paul Cleave...
Sixty seconds with Denise Mina...
Sixty seconds with Jack O'Connell...
Sixty seconds with Simon Hall...
Sixty seconds with Michael Gregorio...
Sixty seconds with LC Tyler...
Sixty seconds with Gerald Seymour...
Sixty seconds with Grace Monroe...
Sixty seconds with Charles Todd...
Sixty seconds with Rick Mofina...
Sixty seconds with Simon Lewis...
Sixty seconds with Gene Kerrigan...
Sixty seconds with China Miéville...
Sixty seconds with Stav Sherez...
Sixty seconds with Declan Hughes...
Sixty seconds with Gail Bowen...
Sixty seconds with Peter Leonard...
Sixty seconds with Cynthia Harrod-Eagles...
Sixty seconds with John Hart...
Sixty seconds with Chelsea Cain...
Sixty seconds with Tana French...
Sixty seconds with Michael Morley...
Sixty seconds with Laura Lippman...
Sixty seconds with Guillermo Martinez...
Sixty seconds with Maureen Carter...
Sixty seconds with Michael Allen Dymmoch...
Sixty seconds with Karna Small Bodman...
Sixty seconds with Tom Rob Smith...
Sixty seconds with Elaine Viets...
Sixty seconds with Neil Plakcy...
Sixty seconds with Chris Grabenstein...
Sixty seconds with Ruth Downie...
Sixty seconds with Brian McGilloway...
Sixty seconds with Reginald Hill...
Sixty seconds with Valerie Wilson Wesley...
Sixty seconds with Giancarlo De Cataldo...
Sixty seconds with Miyuki Miyabe...
Sixty seconds with Andrew Taylor...
Sixty seconds with Ann Cleeves...
Sixty seconds with Graham Hurley...
Sixty seconds with Qiu Xiaolong...
Sixty seconds with James Patterson...
Sixty seconds with Aline Templeton...
Sixty seconds with Jose Latour...
Sixty seconds with Brian Freeman...
Sixty seconds with Eileen Dreyer...
Sixty seconds with Sara Paretsky...
Sixty seconds with Steve Hockensmith...
Sixty seconds with Stuart Pawson...
Sixty seconds with Clea Simon...
Sixty seconds with Adrian Hyland...
Sixty seconds with Mark Billingham...
Sixty seconds with Louise Penny...
Sixty seconds with Jeff Cohen...
Sixty seconds with Stephen Booth...
Sixty seconds with Louise Ure...
Sixty seconds with Greg Rucka...
Sixty seconds with Dreda Say Mitchell...
Sixty seconds with Martin O'Brien...
Sixty seconds with Peter Robinson...
Sixty seconds with Nick Stone...
Sixty seconds with Elaine Flinn...
Sixty seconds with Christopher Brookmyre...
Sixty seconds with Gianrico Carofiglio...
Sixty seconds with Dan Fesperman...
Sixty seconds with Peter James...
Sixty seconds with Marshall Karp...
Sixty seconds with Michael Robotham...
Sixty seconds with Cornelia Read...
Sixty seconds with Deon Meyer...
Sixty seconds with Sheila Quigley...
Sixty seconds with Richard Stevenson...
Sixty seconds with Gayle Lynds...
Sixty seconds with Robert Fate...
Sixty seconds with John Connolly...
|