As the Christmas advertisements start to appear, I realise we’re racing towards the end of another year and I haven’t updated my news here in a while.
First in the catch-up, last month I won French literature prize, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere for Loch Noir (The Black Loch)! It’s a major award here in France for crime writers. Established in 1948, the recipients include Patricia Highsmith, Eric Ambler, Ellery Queen, Elmore Leonard, Frederick Forsyth, PD James – impressive company to keep! The jury is composed of ten French writers, critics and luminaries from the world of literature. It was quite an honour to receive this recognition in my adopted home country.
My writing has been taking a back seat this year. It’s been around 18 months since I finished my last book, The Black Loch, which came out in paperback this summer in the UK, and in France and around the world in the Spring.
Many writers carry on drawing from the well of ideas, long after it has run dry. That’s never been me. When I worked in television, I left two highly lucrative and successful long-running drama serials because I knew the time had come to walk away. The demands are enormous and it’s easy to burn out. You have to recognise when the time has come to leave the show to new writers with fresh stories to tell. The pressure is on you from everyone to stay and keep on producing material because people and jobs depend on it. On top of that there’s the fear of walking away into the unknown, with no job and no contracts, how will you survive? But believe me it’s better for everyone if you know when to stop.
And so it was, that the time came when I refused all new offers of contracts to write another book. To all intents and purposes, I have retired.
I’ve enjoyed not having the pressure to come up with a new book. However, if a great idea comes to me that I feel compelled to research and develop, who knows… I might want to sit down and write it. Never say never.
In the meantime, I have been busy doing all those things I’ve never had time for since I got involved in writing and promoting a book a year for the last 30 years.
Most important of those things is my music. As many of you will know, my book Runaway was inspired by my own experiences in my teens, playing in a band and running away with them to London to find fame and fortune in the 60s. Music, playing and composing had always had a place in my life. A few years ago I released an album’s worth of songs written with my childhood friend Stephen Penn. He had already retired and I promised him that I too, would soon retire and the two of us could concentrate on songwriting and performing. I built a recording studio at my home in France and Stephen and his wife Janis came to visit for Christmas 2019. We made plans to work on more music together, but before that could materialise, COVID-19 and Lockdown intervened, with the cruellest addition of Stephen being diagnosed with a malignant and aggressive brain tumour that took his life. I was unable to attend his funeral and the regret never left me.
Earlier this year, I was in the studio when the first line of a song came to me… “Every time I think of you I smile” It was for Stephen of course, I was remembering the adventures and misadventures, the laughs, the mischief, the music we made together and the fact that I didn’t get to see him before he passed away. I felt he was standing at my shoulder while the song wrote itself in under half an hour. In the end I called it “I wasn’t there”.
I knew I wanted to carry on writing music. My friend Dennis McCoy was coming up with some great lyrics about the state of the world, about growing old, losing friends and coming to terms with loss – all subjects that preoccupied me too. Long gone were the days of writing about teenage angst. I wanted to write from my perspective of looking back across seven decades. Here’s a taste of Dennis’s lyrics with my music in “Where You Are Tonight”
I dedicated my time to writing the songs. Technology allowed me to hook up with musicians across Europe. With wonderfully creative musical contributions from Ian Feber on bass, Steven Jay on drums, Mike Baxter on synthesiser, and Ralph Carter on electric guitar, “Towards the Light” – the album – came into being. It was professionally mixed and mastered in the States by Luke Despain. And I have to say, I am fiercely proud of it.
You can find out more about the album, here. You can download a free booklet from that page, with the stories behind the songs and all the lyrics, as well as all the details about the musicians who contributed. There is a link to all the streaming and download sites the album is available on and even a link to buy the CD if you like hard copies of your music.
To play us out, here is the title track, “Towards the Light”, written from my father’s perspective as dementia began to rob him of his memories and lucidity – a theme which provided me with much of the material for my bestselling book, “The Lewis Man”.
Peter May Author 
Peter- I heartily commend you for having the courage to realize it’s time to move on… I will miss your writing/books but totally agree with your decision.
Hopefully you will attend the Bloody Scotland Festival as a member of the audience.. see you there?
Macgregor Hay
mbhay1@aol.com
Dear Peter,
Thank you so much for all the wonderful books. I live in Belgium and was late to discover you.
May congratulations on a very well deserved award. Keep challenging yourself in all the ways you can.
Best wishes,
Anne Charleston
I, too, commend you for your decision but I will truly miss your wonderful books. I can’t help hoping inspiration will hit and you will find another book inside you that you will enjoy letting out. Best wishes, Sally.
I will certainly miss the yearly release of another “Peter May” but I agree with you that there comes a time when a change of direction has to be made. I, with Anne, have had the pleasure of not just reading your novels over the years, but meeting you and spending time together when we were living in the Corrèze. Peter, enjoy your life and your music and I wish you all good things, stay safe, regards Jim
Dear Peter You may remember a few years ago I wrote, then spoke to you at a signing, in connection with my time as a pupil at John Street and being taught by your dad. (I was the girl who swooned while he read, you may recall !) I had also mentioned upon reading “The Runaway” of my suspicion I was reading an autobiography, living then in Clarkston and knowing your dad lived in the area. I am now reading of your retirement and how you have returned to your musical talents. I am so pleased for you and wish you a long and happy retirement. However, my main reason for replying to the email you have sent out, is to say how sad I felt reading your words about your dad and his falling foul of Dementia and how it came about that you cared for him. Your song is a wonderful tribute to him and I had a tear as I listened, as I could picture my kind teacher as I knew him. Your dad must have been so proud of his “runaway” son and all you have achieved in your life since then. Enjoy your future, whatever you due. Maybe another book will appear at some point! Kind regards Nan Irvin Yahoo Mail: Search, organise, conquer
Thank you so much for writing, Nan. Of course, I remember you. My dad, and his best friend John McCormick, used to get together every Thursday evening and would read Shakespeare aloud, recording themselves with my uncle’s old reel-to-reel. Such was their love of language. I hope my dad would have been proud of me. I think he would have been chuffed by my success. I was certainly proud to call him my father. And who knows, maybe there will be another book in me. Before then, another album, I think 😀
Peter – sorry to hear of your decision to retire. I have enjoyed your books for many years and have now persuaded my good lady to start reading my collection now.
I also enjoyed meeting you and listening to your many talks in Edinburgh.
Enjoy your retirement and long may yer lum reek.
Oh dearest Peter, what a bad news while I am reading the Loch noir ! I can’t believe that I, as your other millions of readers will not be able to look forward to a new book from their favorite writer !
But as a retired person I can understand your motives. As a passionate reader of your thrillers it is a disaster.
Let me be generous and write Good luck to you and enjoy your retirement in your beloved France. And I do hope that “never say never” will happen soonest…
Thank you for all the marvelous reading hours you offered me. I am enjoying Le Loch noir so very very much and I try not to think about that I have been reading the last of the series.
With Love from
Christina
Lyon