Profiles

Bradford, 1974: Red Riding territory

Despite the fact David Peace now lives on the other side of the world he's still holding on tightly to his West Yorkshire roots. After all, each of his books up until 2007's Tokyo Year Zero has been based firmly in and around his old stomping ground. Speaking to the BBC West Yorkshire website in 2003, he told us that his experiences in his formative years were very important to him: "The Red Riding Quartet is set in the West Yorkshire of the 1970s and early '80's. This was where and when I grew up. It's where and when I know. I now live in Tokyo but, in terms of the places and the times I write about, it doesn't matter where I live. You can take the man out of Yorkshire but not the Yorkshire out of the man!"

That can also be said of the themes of many of his books. From those worrying days when the Yorkshire Ripper was still roaming free, to Brian Clough's troubled times at Leeds United, not to mention the Miners' Strike which is brought so brutally back to life in his novel GB84, all his novels have a true sense of place. Anyone who lived through the days he vividly describes will instantly recognise the atmosphere and many of the locations about which he writes. But why, we asked him in 2003, focus a whole series of novels on such a gruesome topic as the police investigations into the Ripper? He says it's a matter of writing about what one knows: "I was born in Dewsbury in 1967 and didn't leave West Yorkshire until 1987 - and then only to Manchester. The crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper and the police hunt for the person - or persons - responsible lasted from 1975 until 1981 and, for me, cast a shadow over that entire place and time. I believe you should write about things that matter, about things you care for, things you know. What matters to me, what I care for and what I know, is the West Yorkshire of my childhood which, unfortunately, was also the Yorkshire of the Ripper."

Sean Bean: Red Riding star

The tone of all David Peace's novels so far in his career can fairly be described as 'bleak', sometimes unremittingly so. Not only that, but some incidents and events he writes about are violent, shocking and certainly not for the faint-hearted. Where, we asked him soon after the 2004 publication of his self-described 'occult' history about the '84-'85 Miners' Strike, does his interest in the darker side of human nature come from?: "Unfortunately, I grew up in what I think was a dark period in the history of West Yorkshire. I'm not only thinking here of the Ripper, but also of the economic, political and social climate of the period, as I feel West Yorkshire suffered a great deal under the Thatcher government. So that has obviously 'coloured' my writing. And perhaps that is also why I've always been drawn to 'darker' or more 'extreme' art such as the painting of Francis Bacon and Anselm Kiefer, or the music of Throbbing Gristle and Joy Division, among others. And, in terms of books, I'm inspired by writers who I feel push writing to its limits, for example B.S Johnson in Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry, Derek Raymond in I Was Dora Suarez or James Ellroy in White Jazz."

And it seems that David Peace's interest in the darker side of life is unlikely to abate anytime soon. Speaking to him just after Tokyo Year Zero came out in 2007, he told us that this looks like remaining one of his major themes - and it's all down to his West Yorkshire roots: "Hidden, or occult histories - along with defeat - are what continues to interest me. And I do think this may come from having been born in West Yorkshire as I think, historically, West Yorkshire is very much a place of defeat and hidden histories - from William and the Harrowing of the North to the Wars of the Roses etc. I think, more than anywhere else in England, people in West Yorkshire know that Official History is only ever written by the winners and that it's always/usually a lie."