Dead ImportantWorking relationship: Peter James, the thriller writer and film producer, and his personal assistant, Sarah Neri

[The Times,  06th July 2005.
Words: Rosalind Renshaw.]

If I'd read the book first, I might have expected interviewing Peter James to be a paranormal experience. As it was, the interview came first, then I read the book - which was a huge mistake from the point of view of filing this piece on time: Dead Simple, currently No 18 in the bestseller charts, is dead hard to put down.

Extraordinarily, Peter had not written a word in ages before his new book, even though he had been a full-time, successful author for ten years — Possession, where a woman is haunted by her dead son, will be made into a film next year, possibly starring Kim Basinger.

A bad case of writer’s block? “No, but it is the loneliest of occupations. When it got to the stage where I was so desperate to see someone that I walked across a Sussex field carrying a vacuum-cleaner, purely to talk to the man in the repair shop, I knew I had to do something.”

Peter returned to a world he already knew very well — films. “I really enjoyed getting back to interacting with other human beings,” he says. “A lot of people manage to combine writing with other things but, until Dead Simple, I had never been able to do that.”

Peter had written stories since he was six years old but went into the film industry after school.

His ten-year break seems not to have mattered one jot and he is now managing director of one of Britain’s most prolific film companies, Movision Entertainment, which has recently produced 13 films, including Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes; Head in the Clouds with Penélope Cruz and the Oscar-winner Charlize Theron; and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, with Robert De Niro, Kathy Bates, Harvey Keitel and Gabriel Byrne.

However, the plot for a book was burning itself insistently into Peter’s brain, so 18 months ago he started writing again. He describes his routine: “I’d begin at 6.30 in the evening, armed with a massive vodka martini and four olives, and make myself write at least 1,000 words.”

The experience can’t have been so bad, because he is now writing the second in a planned series of crime novels featuring detective Roy Grace, who has more psychics than sidekicks.

The book required a lot of research. “I had open house with the Sussex constabulary and they allowed me to be a fly on the wall.”

He also spent some time in Brighton & Hove mortuary. Creepy, but perhaps peaceful, compared with the film world.

He has dealt with many stars. “I am not a fan of most of them,” he says. “As a breed, they are difficult, egotistical prima donnas who ought to be put in cages and let out for filming.”

He makes exceptions for Terry Thomas (“a gentleman”), Sharon Stone (“smart and bright”) and Al Pacino (“one of nature’s gentlemen”).

Living in both the hard-paced film world and the isolation of writing means that Peter requires a lot of support from his PA, Sarah Neri.

“She tells me what to do and I do it,” he says, smiling. “I can totally depend on her for organising my week, although I sometimes think that she ends up cancelling more of my appointments than she makes. She is excellent at managing events, such as the book launch and film premieres, and she is very gregarious.”

Sarah was born in America but at 14 came to board in England, at Bryanston School in Blandford, Dorset. She then studied sociology and politics at university here. While on a year’s visit back to America, she had the chance of work experience in the media, which she decided would be more interesting than waitressing.

After graduating, she gravitated towards TV, films and events management, working in all sorts of freelance and temp roles until becoming PA to the chairman of ICM. This proved the ideal stepping-stone to her present job, where she also supports the managing director, James Simpson.

“Neither James nor Peter had had a PA before, so getting them to give me the reins was a feat in itself. I had to wean them off doing everything for themselves.

“I organise their itineraries, sort out e-mails and post, and liaise with them throughout the day by phone, text and e-mail to try to keep on top of what they are doing. Peter is a very last-minute person, which is always fun, and the events are hectic.”

Among the many she has organised are the Movision party at the Cannes Film Festival, which included everything from arranging the canapés to compiling the guest list, and the gala for Merchant of Venice at the Venice Film Festival.

Perhaps not surprisingly, she says: “I am having an incredible time and like travelling, running round and being busy.

“I feel very settled and it would have to be an amazing job opportunity that took me back to the States.”

Dead obvious, really.

:: return to interviews index