Michael Leese's Blog
May 21, 2018
Always look on the bright side of life.
I’ve been talking to a few people who enjoy the humour in the Jonathan Roper series and many have asked what prompted me to mix comedy with dark story lines.
Well the answer lies close to home. Literally. My son is profoundly autistic, and unlike Roper he struggles with language, although he found a way to communicate with us as he got older. But growing up he was a real handful and my wife and I soon learned that a sense of humour would be an indispensable tool if we were going to survive.
I should probably share some examples to help you understand. This one concerns what we in Britain refer to as a heatwave. Temperatures hitting a dizzying, for us, 100F. This is not the sort of weather we Brits are comfortable with and my boy proved no exception.
It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday and it was getting hotter and hotter. I was in the kitchen trying to cool down with an electric fan when, to my total surprise, he appeared wearing a full Santa Claus outfit. I’m talking the thick red tunic, the trousers, the hat and the fluffy white beard. He stood in the doorway and announced “ice cream” - his way of asking to be taken to the shops to get a cold drink and ice cream. Inside the suit he was going as red as the outfit and sweating heavily. I told him it was fine to go to the shop but suggested he might like to take the outfit off. He wasn’t having any of it, so off we set.
To this day I have never been sure why he was wearing it, but my best guess is that Santa turns up in the cold weather of Christmas, so this was his way of asking someone to make the heat go away.
Anyway, I digress. We were about to have more Santa related fun. We arrived at the shop, which was full of people who’d had the same sort of idea, so there was a long queue at the checkout. We took our place at the back and I checked my even redder and sweatier son. He still refused to take his gear off.
He had one more card to play. To pass the time he started singing, very loudly, very off-key, and slightly unintelligibly the carol Jingle Bells. This was bellowed out as we shuffled forward. I have to admit that I was embarrassed, deeply embarrassed, but I needn’t have worried. An entire shop full of customers simply ignored us. They stared straight ahead, never once glancing in our direction.
Finally, we got to the counter. The young assistant looked at me, looked at my sweating son and told him “Hello Santa. It’s a bit early for you isn’t it?”
Well the answer lies close to home. Literally. My son is profoundly autistic, and unlike Roper he struggles with language, although he found a way to communicate with us as he got older. But growing up he was a real handful and my wife and I soon learned that a sense of humour would be an indispensable tool if we were going to survive.
I should probably share some examples to help you understand. This one concerns what we in Britain refer to as a heatwave. Temperatures hitting a dizzying, for us, 100F. This is not the sort of weather we Brits are comfortable with and my boy proved no exception.
It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday and it was getting hotter and hotter. I was in the kitchen trying to cool down with an electric fan when, to my total surprise, he appeared wearing a full Santa Claus outfit. I’m talking the thick red tunic, the trousers, the hat and the fluffy white beard. He stood in the doorway and announced “ice cream” - his way of asking to be taken to the shops to get a cold drink and ice cream. Inside the suit he was going as red as the outfit and sweating heavily. I told him it was fine to go to the shop but suggested he might like to take the outfit off. He wasn’t having any of it, so off we set.
To this day I have never been sure why he was wearing it, but my best guess is that Santa turns up in the cold weather of Christmas, so this was his way of asking someone to make the heat go away.
Anyway, I digress. We were about to have more Santa related fun. We arrived at the shop, which was full of people who’d had the same sort of idea, so there was a long queue at the checkout. We took our place at the back and I checked my even redder and sweatier son. He still refused to take his gear off.
He had one more card to play. To pass the time he started singing, very loudly, very off-key, and slightly unintelligibly the carol Jingle Bells. This was bellowed out as we shuffled forward. I have to admit that I was embarrassed, deeply embarrassed, but I needn’t have worried. An entire shop full of customers simply ignored us. They stared straight ahead, never once glancing in our direction.
Finally, we got to the counter. The young assistant looked at me, looked at my sweating son and told him “Hello Santa. It’s a bit early for you isn’t it?”
December 8, 2017
A big thank you...
This is my first blog post since launching the Jonathan Roper series in May this year. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has taken the time to review my books, send personal messages and use my Facebook page, Jonathan Roper Investigates, to leave comments.
The whole process has been quite overwhelming. I hadn’t realised quite how much waiting to see the first reviews would take out of me. But, in fact, it has been an amazing experience and it has been fascinating to see what people have taken out of the books.
One of the things that many readers have commented about is the relationship between Jonathan and Detective Chief Inspector Brian Hooley. On the face of it, they seem a bit of an odd couple. Roper is the intense, sometimes brilliant analyst who manages to trample on people’s feelings because he just doesn’t get social conventions. Hooley is a tough-as-old boots veteran of the Met and it would be easy to imagine him giving an ‘upstart’ like Roper a proverbial cuff round the head.
Instead, he recognises the qualities the younger man can bring, and if that means they catch the bad guys, then so be it.
It helps that the DCI, who has been a Scotland Yard detective for more than 30 years, has developed a thick skin and a bone-dry sense of humour, which protects him against some of Roper’s more bracing personal remarks. Nevertheless, at times even his stoicism is challenged.
Of course, he needs more than that and this brings us to the core of their relationship and asks if Hooley is the mentor. I’m not sure that he is, or at least not totally. The DCI cannot match the skill-set of the younger man, but that does ignore what he can teach him, especially about how to deal with other people and experience a more fulfilling life.
So, I think that Hooley is also an enabler, because without him Roper would struggle and, for all his analytical skills, might prove too difficult to keep as part of a tight-knit team.
There is one other person to consider as well. Julie Mayweather is, in many ways, the perfect boss. She is good at her job but content to allow other people to get on with their jobs without being micro-managed. I can’t help thinking that every job would benefit from a Julie Mayweather at the top of the organisation.
Thanks for reading this. I wanted to let you know that I have now started on the third book in the series, as yet untitled, and am hoping to publish this in late spring 2018.
Finally, just to prove I do read the comments people have left, I have found a quite brilliant proofreader who has tidied up the manuscripts and I hope will be working with me on all future projects.
The whole process has been quite overwhelming. I hadn’t realised quite how much waiting to see the first reviews would take out of me. But, in fact, it has been an amazing experience and it has been fascinating to see what people have taken out of the books.
One of the things that many readers have commented about is the relationship between Jonathan and Detective Chief Inspector Brian Hooley. On the face of it, they seem a bit of an odd couple. Roper is the intense, sometimes brilliant analyst who manages to trample on people’s feelings because he just doesn’t get social conventions. Hooley is a tough-as-old boots veteran of the Met and it would be easy to imagine him giving an ‘upstart’ like Roper a proverbial cuff round the head.
Instead, he recognises the qualities the younger man can bring, and if that means they catch the bad guys, then so be it.
It helps that the DCI, who has been a Scotland Yard detective for more than 30 years, has developed a thick skin and a bone-dry sense of humour, which protects him against some of Roper’s more bracing personal remarks. Nevertheless, at times even his stoicism is challenged.
Of course, he needs more than that and this brings us to the core of their relationship and asks if Hooley is the mentor. I’m not sure that he is, or at least not totally. The DCI cannot match the skill-set of the younger man, but that does ignore what he can teach him, especially about how to deal with other people and experience a more fulfilling life.
So, I think that Hooley is also an enabler, because without him Roper would struggle and, for all his analytical skills, might prove too difficult to keep as part of a tight-knit team.
There is one other person to consider as well. Julie Mayweather is, in many ways, the perfect boss. She is good at her job but content to allow other people to get on with their jobs without being micro-managed. I can’t help thinking that every job would benefit from a Julie Mayweather at the top of the organisation.
Thanks for reading this. I wanted to let you know that I have now started on the third book in the series, as yet untitled, and am hoping to publish this in late spring 2018.
Finally, just to prove I do read the comments people have left, I have found a quite brilliant proofreader who has tidied up the manuscripts and I hope will be working with me on all future projects.
