Gerald Seymour rose to fame with Harry’s Game, his gripping 1970s book set against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland Troubles, which became a hit television drama, writes York Membery.
Several of the 82-year-old’s other thrillers, including The Glory Boys and Red Fox, have also been adapted for the small screen.
The father-of-two, who lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Gillian, has sold three million books. He just published his 40th novel.
What did your parents teach you about money?
Which is hard to get and easy to lose. My father, William, who fought in the First World War, was about 50 when I was born. He was a retired bank manager for most of my childhood. But even if he had had money available, he would never have wasted it on a gambling house or on fine wines.
My mother Rosalind was a novelist, a profession that was not always the best paid.
Television gold: from the left, The Glory Boys, Red Fox and Harry’s Game were television adaptations
Yes, I was sent to boarding school when I was 13, but my father negotiated and got a special deal: £60 a term. My pocket money was a weekly postal order of 3s 6d.
There were no family extravagances and during the holidays I worked as a gardener in Ewhurst, the Surrey village where my brother and I grew up and we worked as a parcel delivery boy for the Royal Mail at Christmas.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
I became a trainee journalist at ITN aged 21, earning £875 a year, and when I married Gill a year later, in 1964, my salary was £1,000. We were often stretched thin financially. On Sunday nights I worked as a newscaster to earn some extra money.
The last one night story was about a father who tried to get a court order to stop his daughter getting married as she intended and had only £10 in the bank. As a parting shot, I joked, ‘That’s more than I have!’ which was true.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
Never. I have made six books for British and American television. And Hollywood optioned stories and talked about a role being “perfect” for Tom Cruise or Michael Caine, but it never translated into the magical moment when the camera rolls. I would never have known what to do with the “stupid money” anyway: I would have just put it in a cookie tin under the bed.
What was the best year of your life, financially?
Probably 1995 or 1996. After Harry’s Game came out I was in fashion for a while, and a novel from the ’90s gave me a six-figure advance. That funded trips to places like South Africa and Pakistan’s northwestern border to research my books. I even visited communist East Germany, where the border thugs stamped my ‘007’ visa, which was a bonus.
Most expensive thing you’ve done for fun?
Write Things: Gerald Seymour
Four seats with obligations at Twickenham rugby stadium. I estimate I must have paid around £100,000 over the years to watch England matches at home. But now I prefer to watch local football.
What has been your biggest money mistake?
I’m buying a Range Rover for my wife to replace her Discovery. They both had a lot of “teething problems” and were a disaster. The biggest check I have ever written for a car, a second-hand Fiat 127, was just over £1,000 in the 1980s, but it was reliable.
Best money decision you’ve ever made?
When I returned home after reporting on the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in 1973, ITN suggested I take a three-week break, so I decided to write a thriller. The book became Harry’s Game, which was later adapted for television.
Do you have a pension?
Yes, but I’m lucky to still get paid for my writing.
Do you have any property?
An 1860s three-bedroom cottage in the Thames Valley, which my wife and I bought for a six-figure sum in the 1990s.
If you were Chancellor, what would you do?
I would find a way to reduce the VAT, because that tax always seems to mess with my cost estimates.
What is your number one financial priority?
Being able to pay my own expenses and not be a burden, while remembering the old saying that “shrouds have no pockets.” Meanwhile I have another chapter to write…
- Best Revenge by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton) is available now.