A couple of months after Inspector Hobbes and the Bones was published, I spoke to Rona Laycock in The Writers Room on Corinium Radio (our local radio station). I give a couple of short readings from the book (which I don’t read as well as the excellent narrator of my audiobooks, Tim Campbell), along with a few comments on Hobbes’s origins. This interview took place before the Hobbes audiobooks were commissioned.
The interview lasts about 15 minutes.
Summary of the interview:
- The Hobbes character and series were inspired by seeing a TV presenter walking around London dressed as a Neanderthal.
- Andy is sort of based upon the worst aspects of my character and was also inspired by Nigel Bruce’s bumbling interpretation of Dr Watson from the 1930-40’s films of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories,
- Mrs Goodfellow’s name came from a sprite in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and she came into the story as an equivalent to Mrs Hudson in Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.
- Sorenchester is loosely based upon a version of Cirencester, with changes to street names and venues, and using places from history that no longer exist, such as The Shambles.
- The Bones is now the 4th story in what was going to be a trilogy.
- Andy, like Dregs the dog, is adopted by Hobbes as a pet, only Dregs is more useful, which Andy doesn’t realize until much later.
More on Inspector Hobbes and the Bones
The cosy mystery, comedy, paranormal fantasy Inspector Hobbes and the Bones is available in paperback, hardback, ebook and digital audio download.
‘I was grateful for having been born human’ There’s going to be trouble. Andy Caplet’s wife goes away, someone is out to get him, and he loses nearly everything in a storm. Amazing both himself and his unhuman friend Inspector Hobbes, he heroically rescues flood victims and uncovers something shocking. Is Andy being set up for blackmail by the apparently charming young woman who attempts to seduce him, or is something even more sinister afoot? Hobbes certainly believes so, and he’s getting worried.
Listen to a sample: This is narrated by the award winning and brilliant Tim Campbell.
Inspector Hobbes and the Bones audiobook
Read a sample
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This was first posted to blogger.com, the original home of my blog, in 2018.
