For Edinburgh-based author Phil Miller, a childhood spent in a house filled with books led to a career in journalism and a lifetime of wordcraft.
Phil, who grew up in the North of England and now works full time as a civil servant alongside his writing career lives in Edinburgh with his wife, writer and film director Hope Dickson Leach and their two young sons.
After 20 years as a journalist, Phil started to write in earnest in 1999 following the death of his father, who had been a voracious reader himself. “I bought my first personal computer with a little bit of money he left, and started writing a whole collection of short stories, a blog under a different name, and a lot of indifferent poetry,” he says.
“My first published novel was The Blue Horse in 2015, followed by All The Galaxies in 2017. I’ve written two other novels  – they just weren’t published. I am 50 next year, which seems unbelievable to me. I feel like I’ve only just got going. I also work full time, of course, and we have two young boys.”
House full of books
With the benefit of his father’s collection of novels – everything from Camus to Tolkien to delve into, Phil also, “spent a lot of time in the town library, where my sisters and I devoured all kinds of books.”
He looks back on his career in journalism fondly, saying that it; “was my vocation for 20 years, so it has been hard to ignore in my writing. I also think its important to write about newspaper journalism, and what has happened to it. I loved being a journalist and I miss it.
“I was a bit of a byline addict there for a few years,” he admits, pointing out that, “Shona Sandison, in my books, is as well. She has that urge, that monomania. The thrill of landing an exclusive is a rare one, and it doesn’t last long. You need to get the next story. I was fortunate, for the most part, to have some informed and supportive editors who valued cultural news as much as any other news (which of course, they should – now more than ever).
Tartan Noir
Phil’s latest helping of Tartan Noir is inspired by his time reporting on the Scottish arts scene and a fictitious painting by the very real Charles Rennie Mackintosh. “I I needed an object for the search,” he says of the picture, “the engine that drives the book, and I knew it would be a painting.
“I also knew it would have to be a liminal work, a disputed work of art that lived on the borders of life and death. And Mackintosh’s final years were fascinating to me. The rest grew with the writing.”
Set in Edinburgh, the city in The Goldenacre represents what Phil describes as: “a shadow version, maybe an Edinburgh of memory and dreams, of recalled sensation and emotion. I mainly write at night, so that plays a part as well, I am sure.
“Like any city, it has darkness. Any world or landscape with people in it has darkness – we throw such deep shadows. We bring disorder. That goes for the art world, too.”
In Phil’s novel, The Goldenacre is the last work by Macintosh which has been gifted to the people of Scotland. The picture captivates the artworld but it is bound up in a violent mystery which is investigated by reporter Shona Sandison and art expert Thomas Tallis.
Rave reviews
He draws his readers into a complex web of crime which has earned plaudits from the likes of Denise Mina, to his obvious delight: “Being reviewed well in the Wall Street Journal was a first!” He exclaims.
“There’s been some generous reviews. It is very odd, but lovely, to think of people in New Mexico and Portland and Virginia and New York reading the book.
Denise Mina is so brilliant, and has been very kind and encouraging to me. It’s so supportive to have those comments – it’s a hint you might be doing something worthwhile. On the bad days, it helps.”
Phil has another novel in the pipeline, “It’s at the stage where I am almost ready to show it to other people,” he says. “And I will be in an event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this month, which will be lovely. I have a stash of poems building up, but poetry submission is a painful process. I will get around to it when I can summon up the courage.”
The Goldenacre by Philip Miller, Polygon, £9.99
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