Peter James: ‘I wrote 100 pages and made millions’
Peter James is a crime thriller writer who found fame in 1988 with his novel Possession - Andrew Crowley
John Wright
8 min read
Peter James, 75, is a crime thriller writer who found fame in 1988 with his novel Possession, which became an instant hit.
He has written 43 novels, including the crime thriller series featuring Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, which has been adapted for the hit ITV series Grace, starring John Simm.
His books have sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into 38 languages, with 19 Sunday Times No 1 bestsellers.
Today he lives in Jersey with his wife Lara.
How did your childhood influence your attitude to money?
We had a factory in Brighton where we made gloves, including the Queen’s gloves, and aged 13 to 14 I worked there in the holidays, inspecting cloth.
My father was an accountant; my mother, Cornelia James, was a refugee from Austria in 1938. She started making gloves in 1946, and by 1950 employed 400 people.
And we had a factory in Bury St Edmunds making ties and neckwear. It was a flourishing business but with the advent of imports from the Far East it struggled and they had money worries in old age.
We still made the Queen’s gloves but most of the glove making was being massively undercut. In the ’70s you could import a pair of gloves for 50p that cost ￡10 to make in England.
Queen Elizabeth II wearing Cornelia James gloves during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace - Dominic Lipinski/PA
What was your first job?
I was Orson Welles’s housekeeper. He paid me 10 shillings an hour. I was 19, at film school, living in a tiny flat in London. My dad gave me enough for ￡8 rent, food and train fare.
I met this posh girl I wanted to invite out so I had to earn money. I saw an advert in a newsagent’s “Cleaner wanted. Apply Mrs Welles.”
She said: “I was expecting a female.”
I was scrubbing the skirting board when all this mail arrived addressed to Orson Welles. Then the door opened and in he walked.
He looked down, said, “Good morning”, and walked upstairs and shut the door. Two days later I arrived full of questions but he’d gone to America.
'I was Orson Welles's housekeeper. He paid me 10 shillings an hour' - Uber Bilder / Alamy Stock Photo
When did you realise writing might be your future?
I never had much confidence when I was a child.
I wrote three novels in the early ’80s that didn’t sell well. Then when Possession got to number two on The Times bestseller list I thought maybe I do have some talent.
Why did you leave the film industry?
After film school I went to Toronto – in 1970 in England it was impossible to get a job in film and television.
I worked as a gofer on Polka Dot Door, a daily programme for pre-school children. The producer came in a panic one day saying: “The writer’s sick. Your CV says you won your school’s poetry prize, can you write today’s show?”
I wrote it and they hired me to write it three days a week for a year.
Then I had a company raising finance and making films in Toronto and Los Angeles, but the film business is much harder involving constant negotiation. When you write you don’t have to answer to anybody.
Your best and worst financial decisions?
Best: quitting the film business in 2005 to write full-time. That year my first Roy Grace novel Dead Simple went straight into the Sunday Times top three. Until then I’d made some money from writing but a better living from film and television producing.
Worst: I’ve always been nuts about cars. I bought an E-type Jag for ￡10,000 in 1988 I spent eight years and ￡75,000 having it restored. The classic car market was on the floor in 1998 when I sold it for ￡20,000.
Have you bought property?
Yes, but not as an investment. The best was a flat I bought in Notting Hill for ￡650,000 in 2003 and sold in 2021 for just under ￡2m.
Now Jersey is our home; we’ve got a flat near Brighton where I research with the police for my Roy Grace novels.
Crime thriller series featuring Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has been adapted as a hit ITV series, starring John Simm - SALLY MAIS
Have you ever had trouble paying your bills?
In 1975, when producing a terrible film Spanish Fly with Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips.
We were filming on location in Menorca with British and Spanish film crews, and my Canadian partner called saying the money for the film had fallen over. I had to pay 150 people on my Amex card for two weeks and lost several hundred thousand pounds. EMI later bailed the film out and I recovered some of it.
Have you done lucrative TV adverts?
My company in the ’70s made a commercial with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan for Benson & Hedges Gold Cigarettes, and was paid ￡100,000. But the cost of making it was at least half that.
Have you splashed out?
A 1962 Corvette which I race regularly at Goodwood Revival. I bought it in 2018 for ￡250,000 and spent ￡150,000 getting it into racing condition. It’s probably worth ￡700,000 to ￡800,000 now.
Do you collect cars?
I’ve got a racing 1964 Mini Cooper S, a Bentley Flying Spur, a hybrid Range Rover, a Porsche 911 and a classic Mercedes 500SL.
I hate to think how much I’ve spent on cars over the years. I’ve got a racing BMW I give on permanent loan to Jersey’s police. They use it to engage with youngsters. And I’ve donated two police cars to Sussex Police.
Writing’s very sedentary and it’s great to race. My publishers would rather I took up bowls, after I had a big accident in 2013 when I rolled the car four times at Brands Hatch.
Have you ever been ripped off?
Yes. When I was at school, aged 14 to 15, I saw an advert in a paper that said, “Do you want to make a lot of money? Send 10 shillings”, say ￡10 today, so I did.
Two weeks later I got a reply saying, “Do what I did.”
Has money had its funny side?
I do a lot of research for my books. I’m working on a future Grace thriller set in a Brighton hotel and last year I spent a day as a concierge at The Grand in full uniform.
From the concierge desk I saw an elderly couple struggling with their luggage so I picked their bags up, carried them out to the boot of their car. The guy gave me a ￡5 tip.
Last year Peter James spent a day as a concierge in Brighton's Grand Hotel in as research - James Barrett / Alamy Stock Photo
Which of your novels has made you the most money?
I wrote a 100-page novella in 2010 called The Perfect Murder which I wrote for The Reading Agency’s ‘Quick Reads’.
They paid a standard ￡3,000 fee; and since then it’s gone into 35 languages and become a hit stage play around the world.
Also Dead Simple has sold phenomenally worldwide. I’ve made a seven-figure sum with it – also seven figures with the novella.
Has your career had help or hindrance from unlikely sources?
For my 17th birthday my dad, who knew I wanted to be a writer, bought me a portable electric typewriter and typing lessons with this battle-axe who came to the house.
She had a ruler and she’d cover up the key pad with sticky white patches. If I looked down at the keypad she’d hit me on the knuckles with the ruler and shout, “Don’t look!”
It taught me to touch-type, and has stood me in good stead.
Has your career ever been in jeopardy?
For my first novel, a spy thriller, they only printed 1,800 copies, of which 1,500 went to libraries.
The second book still didn’t go well. A friend at Penguin said, “Why are you writing spy novels? Write something you’re passionate about.”
A week later we got burgled. A detective came to take fingerprints, saw my first book, saying, “If you ever need research help with the police, give me a call.”
We became friends and it led to my creating Roy Grace; so being burgled was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Peter James’s latest book They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy’s Story was published on May 9.
