We have talked to Ben Elton about his latest book Time and Time again and the future of Blackadder.
Many thanks for giving us some time here at SFFWorld.
You’re welcome, delighted at the interest.
First of all can you tell us a bit about your new book, Time and Time Again?
I hope I’m not here on false pretenses because I don’t really see it as a Sci Fi book as such. There’s a big time travel element and I had great fun with it but it’s really only there to serve the historical fiction. TATA is a ‘what if’ book about a plot to prevent The First World War organised from the future. As you can imagine, things don’t go according to plan!
Can you give us some insight into your main character, Hugh Stanton?
Tortured, flawed, grieving a screwed up marriage and a terrible bereavement. But he’s also super cool and ex special forces. Well he is the hero! It’s his isolation and loneliness that lead the plotters to choose him for their mission into oblivion. But why is he so alone? He may find the answer in 1914.
What do you hope readers will get from the book?
It’s an adventure yarn, a wry romance and a sci fi fantasy. It’s also pretty carefully researched so if nothing else the reader will learn a lot about the world in the months leading up to World War One and the assassination at Sarejevo which must rank as one of the biggest series of blunders in history.
Did you do a lot of historic research for this project or was it all familiar territory from earlier work like The First Casualty and Blackadder Goes Forth?
I read a lot of history anyway, much more than fiction. I know the period well but no matter how much you read there’s always 99% left to learn. I did a lot of specific research for this book around Turkey and the Balkans and in particular the terrible, darkly hilarious detail of that fateful day in June 1914 when the first shot of the First World War killed Arch Duke Ferdinand.
Your own ancestors were on both sides of the war. Do you feel that gives you a somehow unique perspective?
Yes, my father’s father served for four years in the Kaisers army and won an Iron Cross! My mother’s dad was in the British Royal Flying Corps. I don’t think that gives me a special perspective but it gives me an emotional connection I guess. More so for another of my novels Two Brothers which is set in Berlin between the wars. My Grandfather was Jewish and came to Britain as a refugee with his family in 1939, such irony that a decorated war veteran had to run from the country for which he fought because he was now considered sub human.
What came first – the story or the characters?
The story came first. I am so fascinated with and frustrated by the First World War, it was that dreadful suicidal conflict which bequeathed us the Totalitarian Twentieth Century. Stalin and Hitler are direct results of it. I wanted to consider how things might have been, and from many angles.
What is it with Time Travel you find fascinating?
The same as everybody else. Two things. First is the shear fantasy joy of imagining yourself visiting the past and secondly the endless fascinating conundrums of the Butterfly Effect and the Grandfather conundrum. You could think about it and fantasise about it forever. I loved writing TATA.
Thinking back, how did you start writing? Was there a particular book or moment in your life that spurred you on?
When I was a boy I wanted to be an actor but very quickly I released I’d rather write it than say it. My greatest reading joy as a boy was the comic novels of PG Wodehouse, I do think that reading him instilled in me a love of prose. I’ve mostly written comedy over the years, TATA isn’t a comedy but there’s a lot of humour in it.
You have been writing for TV and Film, you’ve worked on Musicals, even worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber and you write books. Do you have a different approach to writing one vs. the other?
For me writing is all writing. It’s a question of sitting at your desk and trying to stay there. Of course a sit com, play or screen play requires a slightly different rhythm than prose but in the end it’s all about teasing your imagination into giving you something to put down while avoiding distraction. The net has made that so much harder, I’ll be sitting in Australia trying to write and suddenly I’m reading the New York Times!! One click, it’s too easy. Musicals are fun, I’ve done them with Lloyd Webber, Queen and Rod Stewart and having the music as a companion certainly helps. Novel writing is a lonely business, perhaps that’s why I peopled this one with real characters from the past.
In August Sir Tony Robinson said in an interview “I do think a new series of Blackadder is on the cards”. Is it only wishful thinking from all us fans or are there any truth to the rumours?
There are absolutely no plans and I don’t think there ever will be. We are all still friends and we want to keep it that way.
What kind of books do you read for pleasure, any favourite authors?
As I said, I read mainly history books. One of my favourite authors is the American historian William Manchester, his magisterial three volume biography of Churchill is one of my all time favourtite historical reads. My favourite novelists are Wodehouse, George MacDonald Fraser and George Orwell.
What’s next? Do you have any new and exciting projects you’re working on?
Yes, things are quite busy. I have a movie getting quite close to production here in Oz and a new sit com made this January at the BBC, it’s historical but it isn’t Blackadder, watch this space!
Once again, thank you very much for your time, Ben.
And back atcha.
*****
Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2016
