Philip Taffs: Hitchcock disciple turned Gillian Flynnaphile

Philip Taffs has worked as an advertising copywriter in his native Australia for more than years. He is a PEN prize-winning short story writer, and lives in Melbourne with his wife and his two sons. The Evil Inside is his first novel.

What was the first book to make an impression on you?

When I was 5, I copied out the first page of Casino Royale by Ian Fleming and presented it to my father as my own work. I reckon most writers know they are writers from a very young age.

What was your favourite book as a child?

The first book that really got me excited – around aged 10 – was Alfred Hitchcock and Three Investigators: The Secret of Terror Castle. I ripped through the whole series after that and began a love affair with all things Hitchcock that’s lasted a lifetime.

And what is your favourite book or books now?

I think that Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is the best written, most exciting book I’ve read in the last 15 years. I also recently enjoyed her first book, Sharp Objects, and am currrently engrossed in her second book, Dark Places. Seems I’m a Flynnaphile. (My youngest son is called Flynn, too.)

What is your favourite quotation?

“Deliver me from Swedish furniture. Deliver me from clever art. May I never be complete. May I never be content. May I never be perfect.”

Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club.

Who is your favourite fictional character?

TS Garp.

Who is the most under-rated Irish author?

It seems that Ireland is a place where writers, dramatists and poets are generally very much revered rather than overlooked: which is a fine thing! Having said that, Joyce’s sublime short story collection, Dubliners, is perhaps overshadowed by his novels. I seem to remember the painful, unrequited longing in Araby made me cry when I first read it while the last story, The Dead, is, of course, so magisterial that John Huston chose to make it as his last film.

Which do you prefer – ebooks or the traditional print version?

I have not yet read an e-book. Just saying…

What is the most beautiful book you own?

Speaking of Irish writers, probably The Collected Letters of Oscar Wilde, which was given to me by my boss when I worked in New York 15 years ago.

Where and how do you write?

I usually write at a desk that belonged to a mate of my father, in my oldest son’s bedroom – which doubles as my office when he’s not there. Failing that, the kitchen table or holiday houses. (Unlike Hemingway, I find cafes too noisy and distracting.) I’ve only written one book so far so it’s a bit precious of me to talk about technique! For The Evil Inside, I mapped out a very rough outline of the whole book but had the end in sight very early so I had a finish line to run to. As the book took shape, I often sent myself texts and made notes and just slapped it down in either longhand or Word, as I knew I’d be doing a lot of rewriting later on. About 10 separate drafts over 11 years, in fact.

What book changed the way you think about fiction?

The World According to Garp – and John Irving’s slightly heroic, athletic persona – made me think that writing could be hugely entertaining, clever yet simple, and being a writer could be a pretty bloody cool job.

What is the most research you have done for a book?

Again, I’ve only written one book so far so I can only speak to that: I lived in a spooky hotel called the Hotel Olcott on Manhattan’s Upper West for four months… My book was certainly influenced by that visceral, organic experience in a way perhaps similar to Stephen King saying he was strongly and instantly affected by the gloomy old Hotel Stanley in Colarado, where he first conceived of The Shining.

What book influenced you the most?

Again, The World According to Garp: I wrote my university honours thesis on Irving’s work and it inspired me to try to become a writer.

What book would you give to a friend’s child on their 18th birthday?

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Like The Catcher in the Rye, you should read it when you’re a teenager or in your early 20s. Ditto The Beach by Alex Garland.

What book do you wish you had read when you were young?

The Harry Potter series. What a long and brilliant journey JK Rowling takes lucky younger readers on.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?

Read, read, read. Don’t join a writing group – unless Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, Gillian Flynn and Donna Tartt are in it – join a reading group instead. And never, ever, ever give up.

What weight do you give reviews?

21 grams. (The good ones I lap up, the others I pretend are for some other hack’s lame book.)

Where do you see the publishing industry going?

I have absolutely no idea – who does? – but I generally agree with the pronouncements of where it should be going that super-agent Andrew Wylie makes: more power and paychecks to authors please.

What writing trends have struck you lately?

Short stories seem to be making a comeback, which is great news. As well as the new short game talent, there’s still nothing better for me than curling up with some South Seas Maugham, some jazzy, WASPish Fitzgerald or some Dacquiri-drenched Hemingway stories….

What lessons have you learned about life from reading?

That reading is often more fun than life.

What has being a writer taught you?

That I should have been a printer instead. Those guys make a packet.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

The authors of the Gospels – to find out how much was true; Oscar Wilde for idle banter; Noel Coward to return volley; the Brontë sisters to flirt with, Salman Rushdie for that extra element of danger and I’d ask Hemingway to bring the booze.

What is the funniest scene you’ve read?

Probably the famous hangover scene in Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Or the duck-hunting scene in John Irving’s second novel, The Water Method Man.

What is your favourite word?

Bestseller.

If you were to write a historical novel, which event or figure would be your subject?

Hitler (although Norman Mailer’s already had a go). I’m especially interested in that brief, inscrutable period where Hitler miraculously transforms himself from a homeless loser to leader of the unfree world.

What sentence or passage or book are you proudest of?

I was adrift on a raft of revulsion on a wilderness of sea.

What is the most moving book or passage you have read?

Even though I’m not a fan of romcoms – and even though I knew what was coming from having seen the movie first, the thing that happens towards the end of One Day by David Nicholls. So poignant and powerful. (No spoilers!)

If you have a child, what book did you most enjoy reading to them?

I read The (Berenstain) Bears’ Picnic to both my sons, over and over. (The drawings still make me laugh.)