Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published by Orenda Books, The Beresford is out in July. His previous title Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.
Tell me about your book and why we should read it?
The Daves Next Door. Five strangers meet on a London tube carriage. One of them is attached to a bomb. It may or may not detonate. This is a story about love, loss, humanity and how every person, every thought, every decision has a connection. There’s some dark humour in there, too. Oh, and you should read it because there’s nothing else like it out there – or so I hear. It’ll make you think.
If a film was being made about your life, who would you want to play you?
Affleck. When anybody asks me ‘Who do you think would make a good…’ I say Affleck before they’ve even finished. Bond? Affleck. Nelson Mandela? Affleck. Mother Theresa? AFFLECK.
If I could grant you 1 wish, what would it be?
I’d like to go on living through my work but I’d prefer to go on living by not dying. Though I’d like to stay the way I was when I was 34 and had hair and a six-pack.
When was the last time you Googled yourself and what did you find?
Is that a euphemism? I don’t really do it but I was looking for an interview I did a while back and found out that there is a racehorse called Will Carver. It has nothing to do with me but I mentioned it on Twitter and loads of horse racing people started following me.
If you could host a literary dinner party, which 5 authors (dead or alive) would you invite and what food would you serve?
Fran Lebowitz. Smart. Funny. Hemingway. Big drinker. War stories. Bukowski. Big drinker. Gambling. Chuck Palahniuk. My favourite. It seems there’s someone obvious that I’m forgetting… I feel like a want a Truman Capote or Hunter S Thompson character but I think I will fall back on another favourite of mine, the suave Mr F Scott Fitzgerald. I’m vegan, so I’d probably roast up some tofu, they could all reject it, and we could just get on with a very boozy evening.
Finally please recommend 3 books that you have recently read and tell me why you’ve chosen these?
I’ve been writing so much over the last year that I haven’t been reading as much as I would like. I’m part way through Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough. I always know I’m going to love what she comes up with. This one is tense and unsettling and I NEED to know how it ends but I know she’s going to twist my brain in the process.
Truly Darkly Deeply by Victoria Selman is a clever take on what feels like a true crime. But it’s fiction. Beautifully realised with a great, twisty ending.
The Shot by Sarah Sultoon is a provocative and relevant crime story about front line journalism. It’s savage and authentic but you can absolutely sit down and devour it in one.
