Ask the Author: Phil Lecomber
Answered Questions (6)
Phil Lecomber
Hi Nick,
Thanks so much for the interest! Actually, MIDNIGHT STREETS published by Titan Books is the first in the Piccadilly Noir series. My self-published book (Mask of the Verdoy) is no longer available (it was written quite a while ago, and I think I've improved considerably as a writer). Although it did feature the same protagonist (George Harley) it was actually set in 1932 which is chronologically after MIDNIGHT STREETS (which is set in 1929). I've restructured the whole narrative arc of the series and in fact the self-published book contains a few spoilers, so I'd advise you start with MIDNIGHT STREETS. Book II (yet to be titled) will be published by Titan Books in the spring of 2026. I've actually got the whole series (6 books at the moment) plotted, so we will see Harley go through some exciting and dark adventures through the next few years. Hope that helps!
Regards,
Phil Lecomber
Thanks so much for the interest! Actually, MIDNIGHT STREETS published by Titan Books is the first in the Piccadilly Noir series. My self-published book (Mask of the Verdoy) is no longer available (it was written quite a while ago, and I think I've improved considerably as a writer). Although it did feature the same protagonist (George Harley) it was actually set in 1932 which is chronologically after MIDNIGHT STREETS (which is set in 1929). I've restructured the whole narrative arc of the series and in fact the self-published book contains a few spoilers, so I'd advise you start with MIDNIGHT STREETS. Book II (yet to be titled) will be published by Titan Books in the spring of 2026. I've actually got the whole series (6 books at the moment) plotted, so we will see Harley go through some exciting and dark adventures through the next few years. Hope that helps!
Regards,
Phil Lecomber
Phil Lecomber
Hi Peter,
Mainly through research reading of contemporary novels of the time; books by authors such as Gerald Kersh, James Curtis and Patrick Hamilton. Also, to a lesser extent, from British movies of the period. I then added to this by trawling through slang dictionaries - e.g. 'A Dictionary of the Underworld' by Eric Partridge. Then the secret is to match the appropriate slang word to the character and setting (for example, Harley uses much more slang when he's talking to his working class associates).
Thanks for the interest.
Regards,
Phil
Mainly through research reading of contemporary novels of the time; books by authors such as Gerald Kersh, James Curtis and Patrick Hamilton. Also, to a lesser extent, from British movies of the period. I then added to this by trawling through slang dictionaries - e.g. 'A Dictionary of the Underworld' by Eric Partridge. Then the secret is to match the appropriate slang word to the character and setting (for example, Harley uses much more slang when he's talking to his working class associates).
Thanks for the interest.
Regards,
Phil
Phil Lecomber
"Mask of the Verdoy" is set in London in the 1930s - a period that I've been fascinated with for many years now. The gritty realism of writers such as Patrick Hamilton, Norman Collins, Robert Westerby, James Curtis, and to some extent Graham Greene, drew me to setting the series in the interwar period, and to give a narrative voice to both the working class and to those on the outskirts of society. But it was a chance encounter with a Gerald Kersh short-story in my early teens, and the subsequent hunting down of his novels, that really fixed this historical setting as a backdrop to the Harley Mysteries. Then throw in the Blackshirts, street slang, seedy Soho night clubs, Jazz, a sense of the uncanny and the smoggy backstreets of the West End ... well, the idea was to write something that I'd find interesting myself to read.
Phil Lecomber
Well, I guess most probably the original seed was planted from being a lover of reading, that delicious sense of escaping into another world when you're a kid. But I think actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard) came as a natural progression of my songwriting; I spent a lot of my teenage years and early twenties in bands. My most accomplished songs always seemed to have a narrative lyric to them.
Phil Lecomber
The second of the George Harley Mysteries - "The Grimaldi Vaults". A child abduction, a dismembered body in a suitcase, occultist rituals, Nazis … oh, and scary clowns! It’s business as usual for Harley in his second outing.
Phil Lecomber
Find your voice; and then write, write, review, rewrite, write, review, rewrite, review, rewrite, review ...
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Apr 04, 2025 07:44AM · flag