David Gibbins: Marine Archaeologist

A writer who can do thrillers and history…
Antonio: He writes thrillers, is a diver and an academic. Trifecta.
Ricardo: He caught a few lucky breaks though. The early 2000s were ripe for Dan Brown-style thrillers with historical twists.
Antonio: He’s got credentials: PhD from Cambridge, fieldwork in underwater archaeology. 
Ricardo: I won’t argue with his chops. But success in publishing? Right place, right time? Plenty of brilliant academics never land a book deal, let alone eleven novels.
Antonio: Eleven novels featuring Jack Howard! Sustained creativity. And A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks?
Ricardo: I liked that one, actually. Especially the chapter on the Uluburun wreck. Makes the Bronze Age trade routes feel cinematic.
Antonio: He fell into a good niche. And he’s contributing to understanding of underwater heritage. Still diving. Not just theorizing from a desk but mapping wrecks, finding artefacts.
__________
Voice-over
Growing up as diver since his teens, Gibbins brings authentic experience to his fiction and his non-fiction. A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks is a good read.

Giovanni: A shop/writing den in Tokyo

Nakamichi Street in Tokyo. A quaint shop filled with Italian posters, papers, calligraphy pens...

Giovanni: Buongiorno.

Masa: Buongiorno. I'm quite interested in traditional Italian papers, especially those from Fabriano.

Giovanni: Ah, Fabriano. You have good taste. 

Masa: I've used Fabriano papers for my watercolor paintings. Nice texture.

Giovanni: Aha. An artist, you are then. Most people just come in and take a look at the posters and wander off. But I like it this way. It gives me plenty of time to work on a novel I'm writing.

Masa: A novel?

Giovanni: Set in Italy during the Renaissance.

Masa: I've always found novels to be a wonderful way to learn about other cultures and times.

Giovanni: Novels paint us into different worlds and eras. But my novel is a labor of love, and this shop serves as my writing den. It's quiet, and I can immerse myself in the world of Renaissance Italy while minding the shop.

Masa: Nice. Writing a novel set in Renaissance Italy while running a shop, great. What’s the plot of the novel?

Giovanni: It's a tale of intrigue, art, and love set in Florence during the height of the Renaissance. Character-heavy. It's my way of bringing a piece of Italy here to Tokyo.

_________

Voice-over

And the conversation ends with an exchange of names and contacts. Scribed on a slips of Fabriano paper with a quill pen.

Slow-reading John le Carré: Legacy of Spies

Is this his last novel?

.

Georges: He’s well-known for saying, “This is my last book," or "This is my last interview.” Then he goes and does another.

.

Smiley returns...

Pierre: Legacy of Spies. Hmm. It has a final ring to it. Like pulling all the threads together.

.

Georges: Looking at the Cold War through the eyes of people nowadays. Who do not fully understand how cold and dark the era was.

.

Pierre: I took a long time to read this book. I slow-read it. By which I mean, I read two pages forward and then bookmarked it for the next day one page back.

.

Georges: You did this, I suspect, because you wished to savour the flavours.

.

Pierre: It was not a gobble and go. It was not a page turner. You enter his mind and find chamber after chamber. All the time I’m thinking, is this the last time I sit at the table with a master?

________

Voice-over

Fast reading is for writers who drive their story only through suspense, what happens next.

Slow reading is reserved for writers who transcend a genre.

...

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank

Leopold and Franz discuss a book that has crossed their paths.
...

Leopold: I’m reading a book, about a piano, it reminded me of you.
Franz: A piano?
Leopold: Sorry, pianos. A shop of pianos.
Franz: The title?
Leopold: The… something…the Left Bank…
Franz: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank?
Leopold: You’ve read it?
Franz: I have. A year or two ago.
Leopold: How come you can recall the title and I can’t?
Franz: You want me to come out and say it?
Leopold: No. So I don’t have to give you this one?
Franz: I have it. I read it. I liked it.
Leopold: What was its appeal? For you?
Franz: It was a collection of piano stories. It was a history of pianos. It was held together by this narrative about a man who visited a piano atelier.

_______________
Voice-over
Forgetting the exact name of a book you are reading is not something you confess to; you try to cover, unless your friend knows the book’s name. Either you try to divert attention from your lapse (“You’ve read it?”) or you come right out and admit to amnesia (“How come you can recall it and I can’t?”). Leopold tries both, suggesting that he and Franz are close acquaintances. Even if they may not be exact contemporaries.

Franz demonstrates a predilection for the triadic declaration: “I have it. I read it. I liked it.” And “It was this… it was that… it was the other.” A man with oratorical leanings.

...