Vanessa Austin Locke interviews Peter Jarrette whose ‘truth book’ is causing a stir
What inspires you about Brighton?
“The thing that’s served me well here is the ability to socially network. What I dislike about our sit-com city is that there are so many who take laid back to the extreme. What inspires me about the city and its denizens is that there are clearly those who want to achieve…they stand out. They shine and draw you to them.”
Has anyone you’ve written about in Brighton Babylon thrown their toys out of the pram?
“One woman threw her toys out of the pram before I wrote about her. That story’s in the book. This is the way I see it… you have an audience, eyes and ears trained on your public behaviour. This is a small city and if you steal a chocolate bar everybody is eventually going to hear about it.
“The only line you shouldn’t cross is turning a truth into fiction”
When writing from real life, is everyone fair game?
“Everyone and everything is fair game. If people think that today they can plague and hate and diss each other then authors have carte blanche too. The only line you shouldn’t cross is turning a truth into fiction. Lying. There are characters in the stories who do get a righteous pasting but then when you read the turmoil they’ve put themselves and others through their depictions are truly deserved. This isn’t a revenge book. It’s a truth book. I paste myself too. I’m naked on the page. No, really… I’m naked on several pages!
Brighton Babylon is making publishing history in the digital landscape. Tell me about that…
“Well, Brighton Babylon is traditionally published. I secured a book deal with Dynasty Press Ltd. Publishing is suffering and, like music with the internet, they have to adapt. The historical app WeJIT attached to my e-book version of Brighton Babylon makes me the first published author in Europe and the second in the world to be in direct contact with my readers.
The WeJIT is an app that’s embedded at certain junctures of the book that encourages topic led debates and discussions in an online forum that I will be casting my eye and time over. For instance the issue of homelessness as handled in Brighton by the wonderful charity headed by Mr Paul Young called www.offthefence.org will be talked about and people will be encouraged to debate homelessness in their cities and town around the globe.
Brighton Babylon as a paperback is for the millions who love the feel and weight of a book, those who love turning pages and using funny bits as bookmarks. I’m one of those people. I use my jersey boxers as a bookmark. I’m commando now.”
Brighton Babylon is available from Dynasty (www.dynastypress.co.uk), Amazon and Apple’s iBookstore.
