Will Dean
Author Interview - Will Dean
Author of The Last Thing to Burn
“Misery meets Room. A woman being held captive is willing to risk everything to save herself, her unborn child, and her captor’s latest victim. The Last Thing to Burn is a tense, claustrophobic thriller, but it’s also a story of love and family and resilience.”
Author Interview - Will Dean
Author I draw inspiration from: Stephen King, Yaa Gyasi, Sarah Waters, Denise Mina, Muriel Spark, Marlon James, Cormac McCarthy, Shirley Jackson, Michel Faber, Kim Thúy, Gillian Flynn, Michael Connelly, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Author Interview - Will Dean
Favorite place to read a book: I live at the centre of a forest in Sweden. It’s very quiet here. Simple and basic. I’ll read anywhere but to be outside in the woods with my dog, lost in a great story - that’s hard to beat.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Merricat (We Have Always Lived in the Castle).
Author Interview - Will Dean
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I was always a reader. A black sheep of the family (the only bookish kid, the only member to stay in school past the age of sixteen). I’m from a blue collar town on the Midlands and never dreamed I’d be a writer. I loved stories and they gave me comfort (I was a weird, shy kid who badgered my mom to let me visit the mobile library truck). I didn’t have the confidence to write until well into my thirties. I’m lucky I get to do what I love.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: All, please. I was an early adopter of audiobooks. I used to listen to Bill Bryson books on tape through my Walkman. Not a cool look when you’re a teenager. Then, building my forest cabin, putting in the windows, I listened to The Secret History by Donna Tartt (narrated brilliantly by the author). I’m very attached to that memory.
The last book I read: Lightseekers by Femi Kayode (an excellent debut, coming soon).
Author Interview - Will Dean
Pen & paper or computer: Paper for notes. 11-year-old laptop that doesn’t connect to the internet anymore for writing. It gives me small electric shocks if I’m away for too long.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Dick Hallorann from The Shining.
Author Interview - Will Dean
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: A painter. Or a carpenter. Or a watchmaker.
Favorite decade in fashion history: I’m out of my depth with this one.
Place I’d most like to travel: I’d love to travel across North America. Small towns and vast landscapes.
My signature drink: A cold beer.
Favorite artist: J. M. W. Turner.
Number one on my bucket list: Spend more time with my wife and my 6-year-old son. Bonfires and dog walks and building things.
Anything else you'd like to add: Thanks for having me.
Find more from the author:
Twitter and Instagram: @willrdean
YouTube: Will Dean Forest Author
Author Bio: Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom and lived in nine villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the London School of Economics and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a wooden house in a boggy clearing at the center of a vast elk forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s book club on TV, shortlisted for the National Book Awards (UK), the Guardian’s Not The Booker prize, and named a Telegraph book of the year.
