Abir Mukherjee

And I think both of those are, you know, wonderful, wonderful authors that your readers will have read.

But the gentleman who I think really started what we termed Tarte Noire was a man called William McIlvany.

And he wrote a book called Laidlaw in the 70s.

It's a crime novel set in Glasgow, but it's a very odd crime novel in that you know the crime and you know who's committed it within the first chapter.

And the rest of it is really a love story to Glasgow.

And that really started what we now know of as Tarte Noire.

So I would put him up there.

Christopher Brookmeyer.

He is.

He is.

It's odd because Chris's son used to go to my school.

And so I never get invited to talk at my school because I wasn't even the best author linked to the school.

But now he's left, so I get invited along now and again.

But he's a lovely man.

And he now writes historical fiction with his wife under the name Ambrose Parry.

Well, I wanted to actually...

I want to actually try opium, research purposes, of course, but there's only apparently the only place you can smoke opium in the traditional way now is somewhere in Cambodia.

And I had a chat with my wife and we decided I wasn't going to do that.

But you attempted to?

Well, I wanted to, but I was told very firmly that that was not going to happen by my wife, who makes the decisions on all important matters.