CAE (Advanced Exam) Listening Test 6

Part 3
15 B 16 C 17 A 18 B 19 B 20 D

You’ll hear an interview with a writer called Barry Pagham, who writes crime novels.
For questions 15–20, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
In the exam, you have 70 seconds to look at Part 3.

Interviewer: My guest today is the crime writer Barry Pagham. Barry, you’ve written a number of
best-selling crime novels, but you wrote other things before that, didn’t you?
Barry: Yes, my first published novel was a spy thriller. I really wanted to write, and crime
would’ve been my first choice, but it wasn’t such a respected genre back then. I
read a newspaper article that said there was a shortage of classy spy thrillers and
thought I could write one. To my great amazement, it was published but, of course,
it flopped completely; so I wrote a second one, which also made little or no impact.
The upside was that I’d established that I was able to write, which would stand me
in good stead later. I’ve now bought back the rights, though, so that I can keep
those titles out of print, they’re really not up to much.
Interviewer: So, your first big break came with the rather spooky novel Transgression?
Barry: Yeah. That one veered on crime in that someone actually committed one. But it
wasn’t a crime novel as such; more a horror story really. I wrote it as a kind of oneoff
book, but then my publishers said to me: ‘You know, we can build your name up
if we pigeonhole you as horror’ and at that time horror was in the ascendant. I was
grateful to have a publisher who was enthusiastic and went along with the idea. It
was a false trail though, because five books later, the genre had gone into decline
and crime was starting to become fashionable again, and I was in the wrong
pigeonhole!
Interviewer: So what did you do?
Barry: I asked my publishers to reposition me as a crime-thriller writer, but they were
resistant to the idea. Although they said they wanted crime, they actually kept
marketing my 'horror' tag. I got very fed up with them. I was half-way through a twoyear
publishing contract, so I was tied. It was my agent who eventually talked me
into biting the bullet and just writing a crime novel. It was a chancy thing to do, and
very, very traumatic because I could easily have ended up without a publisher.
Luckily they liked the novel once they’d seen it, and the rest is history. With the
benefit of hindsight, it was my best decision ever. But it was touch and go at the
time.
Interviewer: And your crime novels are now very successful. And you seem to know quite a lot
about police work. How’s that?
Barry: When I’m researching one, I spend two days a month with the local city police: on
patrol, at crime scenes, or in their offices; and I’ve had some hairy experiences,
been in the line of fire. Like, recently, there was a guy 'five times wanted' for armed
robbery who was holed up in a local flat. When I arrived, there was a whole bunch
of police; plain clothes, dog handlers, guys with armoured vests. I knew one of
them and he said: ‘Stay clear of the door in case he shoots'. That really brought it
home to me that this was the real thing. Incredibly, they rang the doorbell and said
‘Mr X are you in?’ Silence – so they smashed the door off its hinges, and there he
was behind it. They threw him to the ground and handcuffed him. 

Interviewer: Do you use those experiences in your writing, because the novels are set in the
city, aren’t they?
Barry: Yes, very much so, a big part of what I’m doing in my books is building a reality,
and every book pulls in the background of the city and the world of the police there.
The sense of place in a crime novel is as crucial as the characters themselves. I’m
published in twenty-eight languages, and each country seems to love the setting.
It’s kind of bizarre. I get letters from all over the world from readers wanting to
come and see the city. And I guess I can see why. I think it’s because although the
city has a veneer of elegance and sophistication, you don't have to scratch very
hard to discover its seamy side below the surface.
Interviewer: So would you make a good detective, Barry?
Barry: I do think perhaps, if I was twenty-eight years old again, then maybe. Whereas at
the time I’d never even considered the police, I’d have more of an open mind now.
Perhaps with training, I’d have found the courage to jump out of a car and
apprehend a mean looking suspect, or go off chasing someone on my own at night.
I think one thing that would drive me nuts is the bureaucracy: If you arrest
somebody you end up signing your name thirty-seven times. But I guess I’d get
used to it. What I do admire about the police in this city, and I’ve got friendly with
them at all levels, is that they’re incredibly good and committed people.