“I was doing my usual morning ritual of going to Balans on Old Compton Street and having coffee. It was cold and I was wearing my coat with the fur-trimmed collar and using my stick which I need to help me walk, when I stopped to talk to one of the men who were working on the roadworks outside. I asked him when he thought everything would be put right because I explained I was going to have my book launch there next week and I couldn’t possibly expect my guests to trample over roadworks from their taxis and limousines to get in. And you know what he said? He doffed his hard-hat and said: ‘Very la-di-bloody-da!’ I thought it was terrific, so much so I’m going to use it for the title of a novel. It’ll be about a transvestite private detective called Miranda Maracona and she’ll have a beehive hairdo like my good friend Ivana Trump.”

This anecdote sums up the interior designer-cum-author Robin Anderson perfectly. Indefatigably detailed, full of showy namechecks with a unexpected denouement, it says everything you need to know about Anderson’s world, because as you can probably gather his is very much a rarefied iron lung life.

His voice betrays him instantly. Beautifully melodic and musical – he pronounces ‘limousines’ like an aria – it’s the most seriously posh voice I’ve ever heard, like Prince Philip but, thankfully, minus the gruffness. It’s not simply the clipped diction that places him socially, but his stories are like a thumb-flick through the glossily glam pages of Hello!, a fast-lane world of first class, not slow-coach economy. That’s not to say he’s a snob. Like all true upper-crusties, he utterly lacks pretension because he has nothing to prove. It’s simply that this is his lifestyle. And one of the great shibboleths of literature is to write about what you know and that’s exactly what he’s done.

Up to a point. Because what characterises Anderson’s novels is the juxtaposition of the glamorous with the grotty as he mixes designer labels with death and destruction, but as he says, “that’s life – the extremes of how we behave as people. People with Belgravia lifestyles can still go after a dangerous bit of rough. Extreme behaviour is actually part of the same circle and often they meet in the middle.”

His latest offering, Red Snapper, is certainly extreme as it tracks the seedy netherworld of violence set against a backdrop of wealth and privilege. Here the author talks about being an oxymoron, famous friends and what he thinks about being hailed as ‘the gay Jackie Collins.’

How would you describe your fiction to people who haven’t come across it yet?
My work has been compared to Jackie Collins, Harold Robbins and Gordon Merrick. It’s most definitely in the beach-reading bracket. They are simply glamorous/salacious stories that sail along quickly and easily in an entertaining way. I have no aspirations of seriousness, of writing some sort of deathless prose that may win over the literary set or serious-minded critics. There is far too much seriousness in the world in my view and I see my work as an antidote to anything that takes itself too earnestly. They’re racy bonkbusters for the beach that can be very funny but also very nasty.

"There is far too much seriousness in the world in my view and I see my work as an antidote to anything that takes itself too earnestly. They're racy bonkbusters for the beach that can be very funny but also very nasty."

There’s a lot of snobbery associated with that genre of novelist. Do you think they are underrated?
Not financially, no! They’re all highly successful authors who have sold millions of copies around the world, so I sometimes think the proof of the pudding is in how the public chooses to vote with their purchasing power. I do think they are not as recognised as they should be for their skills as storytellers. I’m rather happy, though, to be placed in the same category as Jackie Collins and Harold Robbins as I enjoy their books immensely. Gordon Merrick I’m not so sure about, but I think it’s good company to be in.

My novels are meant for reading on a plane or if, God forbid, you’re in hospital, something like that. They’re meant to thrill and cheer you up. I don’t want to be Dostoevsky or anyone of that ilk. I want to ferry readers away from reality, not directly into it. I like pure enjoyment and I enjoy writing my books and want people to enjoy reading them. For instance, the gay scene which I write about isn’t the dismal, dreary, desperate gay scene you so often see depicted these days. My characters are all successful, rich, enjoy good food, appreciate style and have fabulous lives. Don’t misinterpret me on this, please, but this is a Harpers & Queen world, not the world of The Sun.

Is your work quite autobiographical, then?
Yes, I suppose it is. My first novel, Regina, was set in the interior design world which obviously is a world I’m very familiar with and Red Snapper’s protagonist is an interior designer so I do plunder my own life and career quite extensively. I make no apologies for it, but I like that glossy, glamorous world. But I hope it’s not all autobiographical because there’s quite a lot of murder and mayhem. That isn’t based on personal experience, thank goodness.

What made you start writing initially?
I’ve always written on and off throughout my life. When I was at university, I used to write for the student magazine and during my gap year I was a reporter out in Africa and later when I became an interior designer I started to write articles about house and home style. I began writing fiction seriously in 1998 when I took three months off work and took myself off to Italy for a bit of peace and a break from everything and nestled in a little mountain village that was very quiet and remote. After about a week, though, I was going demented, so I decided to write and that’s how my first novel germinated.

Are there any parallels between the world of interior design and the world of interior writing?
Absolutely. You have to be so disciplined in both. In interior design, you have a scheme and you know what the final result will be and that’s exactly like writing a book; there’s the initial idea for a story and you follow it through to the eventual climax. Having said that, though, sometimes with both you have the raw concepts in place and as you work, as you go up and down and around and from left to right, everything turns on its head and the plan takes you somewhere surprising even though you’re the architect of that initial plan. So, there are definite similarities that run through both worlds.

How do you find the process of writing?
I find it very lonely, actually. By its very nature, you must write on your own simply in order to get it done. You can’t go and have a glass of wine with your friends or go and read the newspaper. I find it easier if I don’t force myself to write. I just write when the mood takes me and the inspiration is flowing. I certainly don’t set myself a nine to five routine. That would be far too constricting. I do like writing early in the morning. I get up at about 3.30 in the morning and if the creativity is alive and working well I’ll write until seven o’clock and then I go to my local Balans down the road from where I live and go through what I’ve written and correct it etc., then if it’s really pouring out I will come back home and continue writing.

Do you ever have writer’s block?
In fact, no, I have the opposite. It sort of spews out. I’ve already got another three books in the pipeline. It takes me about three months to complete a novel so once I begin writing it just shoots out of me, almost in an uncontrollable way.

How do you create your characters?
Some come to me complete, out of the ether fully-formed, others develop as I’m writing and become something I wasn’t quite expecting; they morph into different entities as the novel goes along. Some are actually based on people I know or people I’ve met throughout my life. I’m quite old now and I’ve had a very full, exciting life so there’s plenty of material there to draw upon and play with.

"In real life, I'm one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, but a lot of my characters are really quite monstrous and I enjoy that."

Do your friends ever worry they may crop up in your books?
I would never turn my mates over in print. I like them, that’s why they’re my friends. But I will be very indiscreet here, though. When I was doing interior design I did have a lot of really, really difficult, unpleasant clients and some of them have made their way into my work where I’m able to get my revenge by giving them their comeuppance. I can really have fun with that. Of course, I shan’t name names and they are heavily disguised, but it’s an interesting guessing game for people.

How would pitch Red Snapper to readers?
It’s very clever, fun, a very, very amusing book. People who have read it have said to me how funny it is and how much they’ve enjoyed it. It is very dark, but there is certainly a lighter side. I know it sounds very arrogant to say this, but it is an extremely witty book.

I must tell you something. I was in a bookshop the other day and I bumped into a great friend of mine – I’ll namedrop in a minute – and she said, “Robin, I’ve just bought your book. I won’t be able to come to your book launch, but I’ll read it on the plane to Geneva.” Obviously, she would be flying first-class so I told her to hold up her copy for everyone to see to get a bit of free advertising. That very same day, an acquaintance said he had also seen someone reading my book and inquired where and he replied, “On the night bus to Peckham!”

So the book can go from amusing Mrs Christopher Lee, Gitte, wife of the famous actor and the namedrop I mentioned earlier, on a first-class flight to Switzerland to entertaining someone on a London night-bus, which I think is a terrific compliment. The idea of my work having across-the-board range really appeals to me.

If you could be a character in literature who would you be and why?
I’d be all my nasty ones. It’s because I wouldn’t allow myself to behave like that in real-life. There is an allure to behaving badly, a freedom to it, that if you’re a nice person you could never allow yourself to indulge in. You have to rein in your rude impulses to an extent. In real-life, I’m one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet [he laughs], but a lot of my characters are really quite monstrous and I enjoy that.

Find out more at www.robin-anderson.com and look ouyt for our review of Red Snapper next week.

Red Snapper, by Robin Anderson
Publisher: Athena Press
Released: 22 January 2008
ISBN: 1847482740

Buy Red Snapper online now and save some money to put towards Regina: A Novel of Some Extremes, also by Robin Anderson.