How the Other Half Lives

William Ian North is an absurdly successful moneymaker. His nigh-unimaginable wealth gives him the ability to found and topple governments, ruin nations, even start wars. But down in the cellar of his mansion lies the secret of his success and it's a close-to-home secret in more ways that one. It's also a surprisingly nasty secret, and nastily surprising.

The brief for the novella was absolutely open. The only thing I had to take into consideration was length. Otherwise I could do whatever I wanted. I mulled for some time and came up with an idea for a detective story set in the world of repertory theatre during the 1950s. I did lots of background research, fleshed out a plot, then promptly changed tack and produced this little moral tale about the price of being rich. I wrote 'How the Other Half Lives' in four days, breakneck speed for me, scribbling the words down as fast as my hand would allow. I have to confess I was drinking an awful lot of coffee at the time - the J.K. Rowling Method, as it's known - but it was also one of those rare, magical instances where a tale tells itself, spilling out of you as though beamed into your brain from another dimension. New Agers call it 'channelling'. Writers call it 'jolly good luck'.


Genre: Horror