Tag: Denise Mina

Denise Mina | science

In the forensic science course I took at university they used photographs of dead bodies. For ballistics they showed us a guy lying on the floor, and his head had burst.

Tags Denise Mina, science,

religion

Denise Mina | religion

If you went for a job interview in a Glasgow law firm, they used to ask you what school you went to. And that was a way of finding out what religion you were.

Tags Denise Mina, religion,

politics

I always wanted to work at ‘Take A Break’ magazine, you know, just to inject a little bit of politics into their stories. I applied for a job there after I’d done my law degree and didn’t even get an interview. I only wrote ‘Garnethill’ because I didn’t get that job!

Tags Denise Mina, politics

politics

Denise Mina | politics

I was very aware of office politics because I was so baffled by them. So much so goes unsaid. No one says ‘you’re a cheeky so-and-so,’ no one says ‘you’re so moody,’ nobody ever confronts anyone else about anything. But I’m very crass, and I’m very confrontational, and I have a temper. I had to be hyper-vigilant in every office I worked in.

Tags Denise Mina, politics

funny

Denise Mina | funny

I love Mikhail Bulgakov. He is very original and takes the story to unexpected places. I didn’t realise political writing could be so funny.

Tags Denise Mina, funny,

Food

Denise Mina | food

We don’t really go in for big family dinners, but Scottish people are famously confrontational. It’s a cultural thing, so maybe we don’t need to have them to clear the air. Also, traditional family food isn’t as nice here so there’s no payoff for traveling hundreds of miles.

Tags Denise Mina, food,

Faith

Denise Mina | faith

Comics don’t work if the story is all in the text and the images are illustrative. It’s hard to have enough faith in the artists to allow them to do their job.

Tags Denise Mina, faith,

Dad

Denise Mina | dad

In the ‘Garnethill’ trilogy, people always forget that Maureen O’Donnell’s dad was a journalist and she did art history at uni and her brother did law, but no-one ever thinks they’re middle-class – they’re just working class because they speak with accents.