Socrates Adams talks to Bluemoose about his brilliantly, painfully funny new novel, A MODERN FAMILY.
Q: In your own words, what is A Modern Family about, and what inspired you to write it?
SA: A Modern Family is a story about four members of a family, set in the months leading up to the royal wedding between Kate and Wills. I was inspired to write it by my time growing up in a family, and living through the months leading up to the royal wedding between Kate and Wills. The father of the family is a long-haired, male TV presenter. I was inspired to write about a long-haired, male TV presenter by seeing a long-haired man in a car, listening to loud hair metal, nodding his head to the beat. He looked like a television presenter.
Q: The humour in A Modern Family is amazing. The novelist, Ben Myers, described you as the “master of nervous unease.” The story brims with moments where the reader is cringingly embarrassed for a character; which is probably where the novel’s compassion comes from, too. It reminds me of The Office and similar strands of comedy. Has comedy been a source of inspiration for your fiction writing?
SA: Thank you for saying that the humour is amazing. I really like laughing. I certainly didn’t think of any particular comedy while writing the novel, but it’s definitely possible that TV shows like The Office have shaped the way I write. I’m sure that The Office helped to shape my sense of humour.
Q: Other writers who’ve had a sneak peek at A Modern Family have been full of praise for the writing. Jenn Ashworth described it as “filled with wry observations, ruthless satire and, underneath it all, a real warmth. It is scathing, truthful and hilariously, painfully funny.” Why do you think fellow novelists have been so excited about A Modern Family?
SA: I don’t know what to say other than I’m glad that Jenn liked the novel. Sorry, I don’t mean to be short / weird, just find it odd to think about someone being excited about my book. Well, someone other than me, I guess.
Q: Today’s publishing industry is a very conservative place, and very fearful of taking risks with new writers and their respective writing styles. The tone and voice make A Modern Family a wonderfully refreshing read. Do you think a mainstream publisher would have published it?
SA: Well, again, my answer will have to be that I don’t know. I didn’t submit the novel to any mainstream publishers. I guess that probably no, they wouldn’t have published it. Having said that, I don’t know whether a big publisher would have been right for it. The care and attention it’s been given by Bluemoose has been fantastic. Even though I’m a bookseller, I feel like I don’t really know much about publishing. I’m sure that there are lots of people working at big publishers who want to, and believe that they are publishing a wide variety of interesting stuff. And I’m sure that there are some people working in mainstream publishing who secretly feel pretty ashamed about the sort of books they put out.
Q: You’re clearly multi-talented, having recently had success on the big screen. Tell us about that.
SA: With two very good friends of mine, Chris Killen and Joe Stretch (both really excellent and interesting novelists, published by mainstream publishers, funnily enough) I made a feature film. It’s called Wizard’s Way, and we decided to make it to see how far we’d get with just a good idea and a couple of hundred pounds. We got very very far, amazingly. We will have exciting news to share about Wizard’s Way in the coming months. It should be really, really exciting (fingers crossed).
Q: A Modern Family is a humorous attack on the shallowness of celebrity culture. How will you square this stance when you become a world-famous novelist, actor, film-maker, and champion bookseller?
SA: My plan, if I do become successful in some way, is to become a hermit, basically. I’m sure I’ll never be famous, but the idea terrifies me. I just want to write and make films, in my own way, surrounded by people I love, going on lots of holidays. I want to be Larry David.
Q: So, what next for Socrates?
SA: I’m writing a new book, called Inanimate Objects, that I’m pretty excited about. I’m also working on more (two more) film projects with Chris and Joe, for our new production company, Metal Man. I feel really good about all this stuff.
You can read an extract from A Modern Family here.
