I recently wrote an enthusiastic review of “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa: a novel” by Nicholas Drayson (you’ve not read the review? You should - it’s a great book!). I really enjoyed this charming and highly entertaining novel - but did highlight a few mistakes I’d found concerning a couple of the birds that the author mentioned. To be honest I felt a little unsettled having a go at Nicholas Drayson’s birding skills. This is a novel principally about people rather than birds, after all, and I wondered how he would feel about my arrowing in on those “ornithological discrepancies” as I described them. To cut a long story short I emailed him and asked - and to my delight received a very friendly and interesting response. With Mr Drayson (Nick’s) permission I’ve written this up into a short post and if you’ve ever wanted to know how a novelist thinks (which I did) then you’ll find this fascinating, trust me!

Charlie: I know you’ve worked in Kenya so presumably you’ve based some of the characters on people you met/worked with there? Did the story come to you while you were there, or did it just bubble up over later years?

Yes, I lived in Kenya about ten years ago when my wife got a job in Nairobi (which is when I wrote my first novel, Confessing a Murder). While the setting of the A Guide to the Birds of East Africa is based on my observations of the place at that time, the characters in the book are imaginary. While we lived in Nairobi, though, I went on a lot of bird walks with what was then the East Africa Natural History Society and it was on one of these that I first met Ber van Perlo - at the time painting illustrations for a Collins guide to the local birds - and it was then that I came up with the title of the novel. I didn’t start writing it, though, until about eight years later.

Charlie: You write about really unusual subjects from unusual viewpoints. Do you just like to set yourself a deliberate challenge, or is that just the way your mind works?

I do enjoy a challenge in writing. For instance my first novel was written in the first person; for my second I deliberately wrote in the third person to see for myself what the differences and difficulties would be. And again the protagonist of my first novel was an imaginary character, while the protagonist of Love and the Platypus was a historical figure, the zoologist William Caldwell. Another small challenge I set myself in that novel was to see if I could incorporate into the narrative quite a lot of old-fashioned natural history observation. I hope it worked - at least no-one has complained so far.

Charlie: One of the things I really admired about “A Guide…” is the consistency of the voice of the ‘narrator’. Was it a long process to ‘fine-tune’ this consistency, or was it more of a case of hearing the voice in your head and going with the flow?

That’s a very interesting question. I’m not quite sure who the ‘narrator’ is. I suppose he’s partly me and partly a figure of my imagination - but then I suppose you could say that makes him all me. I can remember writing a short description of the story when I started on the book (which I later decided to leave out) and saying somewhere in it “Trust me, I’m a writer” - which is a kind of joke as writing for me is in many ways an excuse to tell the most outrageous lies and get away with them.

Charlie: As you know my only criticism is that some of the birds you use as plot devices aren’t found in Kenya. You’re obviously interested in birds, but - and I hate to say it - looking back was it a brave move to name so many species without really knowing them very well?

Yes, you certainly caught me out there. While I’m certainly fascinated and delighted by birds - as I am by all animals and even a few plants - I have to admit that I wrote the accounts of the birds in the book from memory. I suppose I was more interested in giving an impression of the wonderful bird life of East Africa than an accurate account. Mea culpa (as Tiger Singh would probably say).

Charlie: Your emails back to me have been extremely courteous and sound very calm: is that the professional writer in you handling your words very skilfully, or are you just a laid-back person who thinks, “What’s done is done” and you genuinely don’t mind some birder in the UK having a swipe at your baby? Or when you got my first mail did you really think “Oh, S*d it, Bloody anorak birders/It’s a novel, I’m allowed some creative licence” (you can be as honest as you like)?

It’s simply that I’m delighted to know that someone has read the book and has taken the trouble to contact me. It’s a bit like getting a bad review, I suppose - any review is better than no review.
And though I wouldn’t call myself a serious birder (my binoculars came from an Oxfam shop and I don’t even have a spotting scope!), some of my best friends wear anoraks.

Charlie: Has anyone else had the temerity to point this out to you, or have most reviewer/critics not been birders?

You are the first, Charlie, but I bet you won’t be the last. I think I’ll have to start saying that I put the errors in deliberately just to see if the readers are on their toes.

Charlie: I said “temerity” in the last question because you’re a published, award-winnning novelist and I’m - er - not: does it irritate you that there are now as many self-opinionated pundits on the web as there are blogs and websites, or do you see blogs like 10,000 Birds as potentially useful promotional vehicles and take more of a “we all have to learn to live together” attitude?

I’m a bit behind on developments on the world wide web so don’t have much experience of blogging. But my publisher at Penguin assures me that a good review in a good blog is something greatly to be desired.

[Charlie: Take note authors of the world and send us your books to read!]

I was interested to hear from my US publishers Houghton Mifflin,that they also publish Roger Tory Peterson’s books and plan to try and sell my novel alongside those estimable volumes. If I could get a hundredth of the sales he has achieved I would be a very happy novelist.

Charlie: That must be really exciting. I genuinely hope your novel sells by the truck-load. Talking of which I’ve said in the review why I think our readers should buy it, but what additional reason would you give to the thousands of readers we have to go out and get it?

Thanks, Charlie, but I don’t think I can really answer that question. I’ll just have to leave it to you and your fellow reviewers.

Charlie: Have you done with birds now, or would you like an ornithological consultant for your next novel (LOL)?

A very kind offer, but I’ve just started writing the sequel and what I really need at the moment is a small mammal person. Any ideas?

How’s that for a generous and genuinely warm response to criticism? Pretty darn good if you ask me!

I was so impressed by Nick’s good natured-ness that I rather cheekily asked him if he would be prepared to donate a few copies of “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa: a novel” to an upcoming and very exciting conservation project that 10,000 Birds is just about to launch (more of which later!). He emailed his publisher immediately, and within a few days Jenny Dean of Penguin had sent FIVE copies to me. Fantastic! Cheers and applause to the both of them…

And how might you get your hands on a free copy of “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa: a novel“: keep reading 10,000 Birds and you’ll soon find out!