To celebrate the release of his new novel, Where Blood Runs Cold, we asked author Giles Kristian to take part in our 'seven things' series, where writers open up and reveal facts about themselves, so readers can get to know them a little better! Here's what he had to say...
1. In 1995, I dropped out of university and became the lead singer in the boyband Upside Down. We had four hit records, performed on Top of the Pops as well as at the Royal Albert Hall, N.E.C. and Wembley Arena, played on the same bill as The Spice Girls, Take That, The Backstreet Boys and Eric Clapton, and made pop videos in the Swiss Alps, Mexico, Miami, Bavaria and Prague. Later, I spent some years writing and recording my own music, signed to another label as a solo artist, toured in Europe and just avoided a plane crash.
2. I married my publicist from the pop days. At first, Sally wasn’t very impressed by me because I wouldn’t play the game and get suitably enthused when being asked by a teen-magazine journalist what colour underpants I preferred. Then, at one photoshoot, I needed an outfit change but had nothing with me, so Sally lent me her denim shirt and I wore it for the pictures. Maybe it was the pheromones on the shirt, but we’ve been together pretty much ever since.
3. When I left the music business behind, I lived in Marylebone in London and got to work writing my first (unpublished) novel. I did a diploma in Medieval History as part of my research and did some modelling to pay the bills while I worked on the book. I was a Magnum Man, the face of WKD alcopops and two brands of lager, and I was in a TV advert for sofas. If only I could’ve combined those jobs, I would have been paid for sitting on a sofa, eating ice cream, and drinking beer! Life goals right there.
4. I didn’t read a book for pleasure until I was 14 and had glandular fever (from kissing a girl at the school disco). I was off school for weeks, bored out of my brain, so my mum bought me a book: The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore. I loved it! It opened the door to new worlds. From there I got into Terry Brooks, Tolkien and Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe novels. Funny to think that one fateful snog started the whole thing.
5. I lived in Manhattan NYC for three years, writing advertising copy and making music for film trailers. Sally and I lived in a huge warehouse apartment and design studio in Nolita (North of Little Italy), just east of Soho. Most of the time, however, I was writing my first novel, Raven: Blood Eye, or else disturbing the film poster designers and trailer editors by challenging them at table tennis. I became a ping pong ninja.
6. I co-wrote a novel with the legendary Wilbur Smith. It was called Golden Lion and it’s the closest I’ve got to writing a pirate novel, which is something my wife wants me to do because she likes the idea of a research trip to the Caribbean. Most of my books are set in cold places. Golden Lion was a no.1 bestseller across three continents.
7. I started writing Where Blood Runs Cold 15 years ago but put it aside when my first historical novel got a publishing deal. In 2020, I returned to my snowy thriller, but ended up rewriting it completely. Where Blood Runs Cold is a survival story, a chase thriller set in the snow. It’s also the story of a father’s struggle to come to terms with his daughter growing up, his own mortality, and his own weakness. Of the natural order, the way the strength of the parent must inevitably fade, while the child grows and comes into her own.
Where Blood Runs Cold by Giles Kristian is out now £14.99 Bantam Press.
MORE FROM BOOKS: Five things I'd like my readers to know about me, by G.R. Macallister