Featured Interview With Author G.J. Griffiths
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am a retired science teacher with some early working experience of the photographic industry. Born in the UK Midlands I have always enjoyed reading most genres of fiction but particularly sci-fi, crime thrillers, and wildlife stories. As a child I could not read enough about wild animals. Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book and Jack London's call of the Wild I read several times! But in non-fiction I was totally absorbed by reading anything I could get about animals from all over the world. As a teenager I can recall telling my parents, "When I grow up I want to be David Attenborough!" mainly includes scientific or historical books. Nowadays, when walking in the English, Scottish or Welsh countryside with binoculars ready for bird-watching I have settled for seeing badgers and otters in the wild.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
After I retired from teaching my first few novels were about the kids I had taught, but disguised within the fictitious Birch Green High School. The three novels were called So What! Stories in a series. Then I wrote a couple of children's sci-fi stories for our grandchildren – Ants In Space. More recently I've written 5 historical novels based upon real characters from the Industrial Revolution period, called The Quarry Bank Tales. This has developed through my volunteer work at a famous cotton mill in Cheshire, England
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Now I greatly enjoy reading books by John Grisham, Ann Cleeves, and Harlan Coben. But in the past Charles Dickens, George Elliot and Elizabeth Gaskell took up most of my reading time. I feel that they are all absolute masters of the skill and art of fictional writing. I can only hope to get near any of them with my own books.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Seeking Truth at Ardwick House: This is the most recent of the Quarry Bank Tales and was published in December 2023. Detective Inspector Walter Button is called upon to investigate a violent burglary that takes place at the stately mansion called Ardwick House, in the centre of Manchester. Button’s Victorian police team have become known for investigating ‘flash houses’ and their associated killings and violence. These public houses, amongst other establishments, are implicated in a crime wave of fencing stolen goods – a big problem for many big towns and cities throughout England.
The ongoing investigation of the Ardwick House burglary takes its toll on Button and Kathleen, his wife. His step-son Josh is the young copper on patrol in Ardwick Green and the first to be alerted by broken glass at the rear of the mansion. As events proceed, a number of other knotty problems and plots come to the surface; not discounting two dead bodies, a secret business plan and pressure from the inspector's superiors. How does all of this involve the adult sons of the original partners and iron foundry owners, David Fraser and Mitch McCallum? Can Button disentangle it all to the satisfaction of his senior officers and before he loses his wife forever?
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