In a career spanning more than 20 years Colin Bateman has proven himself to be one of Ireland’s most prolific and entertaining writers.
Prior to becoming a novelist Bateman served his apprenticeship as a journalist with The County Down Spectator and his witty weekly columns became the stuff of local legend. When his debut novel Divorcing Jack was published in 1994 it won the Betty Trask Award for best first novel. Four years later it was adapted into a film starring David Thewlis and Rachel Weisz, with Bateman writing the screenplay.
Since then Bateman has become an in-demand screenwriter. In 2001 he wrote the BBC crime series Murphy’s Law. These days he has dropped ‘Colin’ from his professional writing name and operates simply as ‘Bateman’ As part of Cúirt 2009 he will read from his soon to be published novel Mystery Men at Town Hall Theatre on Friday April 24 at 6.30pm.
As a teenager Bateman showed a keen interest in writing. His father approached The County Down Spectator asking it to take on the 17-year-old. He eventually graduated to the position of deputy editor.
“For a very shy teenager it really was like being thrown in at the deep end,” Bateman tells me. “The town of Bangor - where the newspaper is based - is about two miles outside of Belfast but we didn’t really have The Troubles as such. We had had about three bombs go off in about 30 years, which would be a lot for a place like Galway but in terms of the North it didn’t even register.
“What it meant though was that there was a vast amount of space to be filled in the newspaper each week. I was given the freedom to write whatever I wanted to and I suppose that’s where the fiction writing came in. The first book I ever published was in 1989 and it was a selection of the columns I wrote for the paper. It gave me my first wee taste of being a published author and I loved the feeling.”
In 1992 Bateman was becoming frustrated with his work at the newspaper. He decided that he had put off writing novels for far too long and so every evening, after watching Coronation Street, he would work on the manuscript of what would eventually became Divorcing Jack.
The lead character is a hard-drinking local reporter Dan Starkey who staggers his way through the news of The Troubles and is loosely based on Bateman himself.
“I was living by myself in a small terraced house and drinking far too much and I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time,” he says. “I’d arrived at a certain age where I’d a bit of life experience behind me and I’d a certain level of maturity and I suppose the story was a way for me to make sense of it all.
“Writing Divorcing Jack over the course of a year in my spare time allowed me to develop and pace it at my own rate. I’d arrive home from work and switch off the TV and write the story for a few hours every night.
“The journalist in the story is a hugely exaggerated version of myself and I suppose I was able to project certain traits on to him. In the book the lead character gets the girl at the end whereas I’d usually go home alone, and the guy in the book always comes up with the best lines when anyone says anything to him and that wasn’t really the case with me. It was an escape, I suppose.”
As well as writing, Batemen’s other great passion is football, which features prominently in his 2005 novel Belfast Confidential.
As the race for the English Premiership goes to the wire he will be watching with keen interest and anticipation the fortunes of his beloved Liverpool FC.
“I grew up supporting them in the 1980s during the good years and hopefully the glory days are coming back again soon,” he says. “I play football twice a week with my friends and it is the absolute delight of my life. Writing was always my hobby but now that it’s become my full-time job I find myself casting a cold professional eye over it.
“So football is my hobby now and I absolutely love it, though about a year and half ago I thought my football days were almost over because I tore my cruciate ligaments. Thankfully I was able to get back playing and brag to my friends about my injury. I still expect the call from Rafa Benitez any day now.”
This year at Cúirt Bateman joins fellow crime writer (and journalist ) Gene Kerrigan. Indeed the Ulsterman has very fond memories of his appearance at the festival.
“I was there about 10 years ago and I remember it very well because it was one of the very early readings that I did,” he says. “The first readings I did in my home town I never really enjoyed them and actually I used to employ people to read on my behalf.
“The reading I did in Galway was the first time I really enjoyed it because I was there on stage and there was proper lighting and I was actually getting a reaction. I also remember Michael D Higgins was there at the time and that was very exciting for me.”
This time around he will be reading under the moniker of Bateman rather than Colin Bateman. Why the change of name?
“I’ve written about 23 books and it can be difficult to drum up interest every time a new book comes out,” he says. “I am Irish but I’m not what people tend to think of as an Irish author. The name change was maybe a way of reaching out to those people who don’t really know me. Bateman sounds a bit like Batman and I like that comic allusion. I was going to refer to myself as Master Bateman but that would probably send out completely the wrong message about me!”
Tickets are available from the Town Hall Theatre on 091 - 569777. Information can also be obtained from the Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, on 091 - 565886.
