{"id":152091,"date":"2021-09-27T11:09:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T00:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=152091"},"modified":"2021-10-05T15:37:31","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T04:37:31","slug":"read-a-qa-with-garry-linnell-the-devils-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/09\/27\/read-a-qa-with-garry-linnell-the-devils-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Read a Q&A with Garry Linnell! | The Devil’s Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Garry<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Garry Linnell is one of Australia\u2019s most experienced journalists. Born and raised in Geelong, he has won several awards for his writing, including a Walkley for best feature writing. He has been editor-in-chief of The Bulletin, editor of The Daily Telegraph, director of news and current affairs for the Nine Network and editorial director of Fairfax. He spent four years as co-host of the Breakfast Show on 2UE and is also the author of five books, the latest of which is called The Devil’s Work<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Garry Linnell is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about his new book. Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Garry

Garry Linnell (Photo by Fairfax).<\/p><\/div>\n

Please tell us about your book, The Devil\u2019s Work<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

GL:<\/strong> It\u2019s a very gothic story about a suspect in the Jack the Ripper killings named Frederick Deeming. He was a serial murderer, bigamist and swindler who embarked on a decades-long crime spree around the world in the late 19th century. He cut the throats of two of his wives and all four of his children. He was finally arrested by Australian police and executed in Melbourne. The New York Times<\/em> dubbed him the \u2018Criminal of the Century\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

How did you first come across the story of Frederick Deeming and what made you realise that you wanted to write a book about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> I stumbled across it after researching the early years of Alfred Deakin, our second Prime Minister, for a separate project. Deakin was a barrister in desperate need of work when he took on the job of defending Deeming during his murder trial in Melbourne in 1892. Deeming claimed he was haunted by his dead mother whose ghost urged him to kill. Deakin had been a committed spiritualist as a young man who believed he could speak to the dead. It turned out both men had something in common \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deeming\u2019s crimes were quite sensational and horrific, spanning three continents. Why do you think he was able to evade justice for so long?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> Policing as we know it was still in its infancy at the time. The science of fingerprinting did not become widely used until the early 20th century and it was very easy to change your identity and move around the globe by ship. Few countries required passports or other identification and border controls were often very lax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 19th century was a very unusual time in history, in terms of the role played by science and religion in public life. Can you briefly tell us about the impact of these things on the Deeming case?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> It was an era when science and religion really began to collide and I was staggered at the influence of spiritualism, particularly among the middle and upper classes. Apart from Deakin\u2019s involvement, Deeming\u2019s solicitor, Marshall Lyle, was also a believer in an afterlife where the spirits of the dead could communicate with the living. Another main character in the book is Sidney Dickinson, an American journalist who spent several years in Australia and covered Deeming\u2019s case for The New York Times<\/em>. Dickinson was living in a house in Melbourne he believed was haunted. His wife was also a palm reader who had been a prominent medium back home in Boston, hosting seances where tables and chairs were seen levitating. How can you not love a story that blends crime, horror and mysticism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a little bit about your approach to research when it comes to writing history?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> Read. Read again. And then read some more. Documents. Diaries. Court reports. Journals \u2026 not to mention thousands of archived newspaper pages from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US. While I\u2019m looking for facts, I\u2019m also searching for clues and hints about the personality of various characters. Unless you can bring those characters to life, you\u2019re left with a story that might be filled with details but lacks the human element necessary for a great story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘It\u2019s all about the people. When I come across interesting characters \u2013 and the 18th and 19th centuries were brimming with the mad, the bad and the delightfully eccentric \u2013 I become almost obsessed with their beliefs, their personality traits and even what they ate and drank.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is the most surprising thing you learnt while researching and writing this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> As someone who used high school history classes as a chance for a nap, where do I start? I don\u2019t think I\u2019d appreciated or fully understood how Australia was shaped and forged by immigrants in the 19th century. Almost every character involved in this book had either sailed to this country in search of a better life, or were sons and daughters of parents who had. They undertook hazardous sea journeys to come to a place they knew little about. They clung to hope. No wonder so many of them believed in an afterlife!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you love about writing history?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> It\u2019s all about the people. When I come across interesting characters \u2013 and the 18th and 19th centuries were brimming with the mad, the bad and the delightfully eccentric \u2013 I become almost obsessed with their beliefs, their personality traits and even what they ate and drank. I try to reconstruct them for 21st century readers so they can recognise, understand and, in some cases, empathise with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the last book you read and loved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL: <\/strong>I\u2019ve just finished Hemingway\u2019s Boat<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Paul Hendrickson. What an amazing tale. He tells the story of Ernest Hemingway\u2019s remarkable life and work using the great writer\u2019s boat Pilar as the chief character. Beautifully written and incredible moving. When I read a book like that I always experience a twinge of jealousy and think \u2019I wish I had\u2019ve written that\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope readers will discover in The Devil\u2019s Work<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> Hopefully they\u2019re not easily spooked. They\u2019re going to enter a gothic world inhabited by ghosts, demons and worn-out detectives hunting down a crazed serial killer whose dead mother keeps waking him up every night urging him to kill. And it\u2019s all true!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what\u2019s up next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GL:<\/strong> I\u2019ve just started research for another non-fiction book that I\u2019m very excited about and I also have a novel I\u2019m hoping to complete in the next 12 months. And if I get the time I would really like to conquer the science of making great sourdough bread \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Garry!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014The Devil’s Work<\/a><\/em> by Garry Linnell (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Booktoberfest<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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