Empire State

Ah now – this was always going to be the big blockbuster novel that would make me a really wealthy man. Picture it - President of the United States held hostage at the top of the Empire State building by a deranged serial killer and a down on his luck Irishman. It had Bruce Willis written all over it!

Except - it became the first of my books not to be published in the US, and it was rejected by all of the movie studios because it was considered to be politically incorrect to a ridiculous level. Or because it was crap.

A small UK production company did attempt to mount a film version of it, for which I wrote the script. At one time both Richard Dreyfuss and Matthew Modine were lined up to star as the President. Sets were designed, a director appointed.

Then someone pointed out that the actual Empire State building is copyrighted – i.e. you can`t use it as a location without the permission of its owners. The producers then went for a meeting with the owners, and the first question they were asked was, `Is there any violence in this movie?` Exit the producers, very quickly.

Unusual fact - Empire State has probably received more continuous exposure than any novel in the history of British television. Although you probably missed it. On `Big Brother` a couple of years ago one of the housemates brought it in with him, and as it`s a big book, he spent half his time there reading it, and with 24 hour coverage of the house entire days went by when all you could see was the cover of Empire State. And then he lent it to his friends. Wonderful! Didn`t help the sales much, mind.