From teenage scribblings to established author: interviewing Christopher Owens

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Four books published, more to come 

Interview by Jonathan Traynor

Author Christopher Owens has risen to prominence in recent years with a series of books that have earned acclaim and praise for their themes and settings, as well as powerful but flawed characters.

With four books under his belt, and a further one set for release in 2027, he has spoken about his work, and how he bases much around Belfast.

Christopher’s writing journey began, when aged just 12, he read Eoin McNamee’s Resurrection Man.

“At the time, the film had just come out and there was a huge controversy around it for a variety of reasons,” he explained. “I ended up reading the book at the age of 12, and I would safely say that it changed my life, even though I probably only understood about one third of it.

“But I think that feeling is quite important: that feeling of if this is what books can do, this is something I want to do. Not long after I started writing short stories of my own, not very good ones admittedly, although I was only 13 at the time.

"At the same time, it felt important that I was putting all this stuff down even though it was very much of its time and something I look back upon and think, you know what, that's at that age that's pretty damn good so fair play.”

Against a background of McNamee’s book, the dawning of BBC NI’s Give My Head Peace and the Good Friday Agreement the feeling of a creative dawn for Christopher was awash in the ether of the country – he even published his debut book, A Vortex of Securocrats, 25 years after the agreement was signed, as he said “put a little bow on proceedings”.

However, the discipline of regular writing came through him reviewing music.

“It was a lot more influential than what it seems, because it was giving me an opportunity to put out work every single week to an audience who were, whether they liked it or not, going to read what I wrote and it was allowing me to contribute to the music scene, which I had become enamoured with.”

“Although I had been published previously by a very good friend of mine, Bobby Walsh in his in his collection Voices in 2010, I took a hiatus from writing because I just gotten involved in the music scene over here through bands like the Sons of Robert Mitchum, Comply or Die. Louisiana Joyride and that seemed far more exciting to me than just writing,” Christopher said. “But obviously I'm not a musician so I couldn't really contribute in many ways.

"So I started promoting gigs and then being given the opportunity to review albums from Metal Ireland was very important for me as it allowed me to contribute to the local scene, but crucially as I said, give me an audience.”

It was the dawning of a realisation that writing can be influential if it is, albeit subjective in reviews, and taking criticism. With his first book, A Vortex of Securocrats, Christopher’s style evoked what some viewed as a surreal-steeped tale, a term he rejects about his work

…the term ‘surreal’ can mean so many things,” he explained. "I would say that there are certainly elements of it in my work but I don't think as a whole, my work is surreal.

“I think that I use surrealism to extenuate the more normal and the more sort of outlandish aspects of normality, which can then turn into something very different thing altogether. Because I think there's a fine line between ‘kitchen sink’ style writing and wackiness, which I'm sure some people do very well, but it's not really my thing. 

“I do find that throwing in the odd moment of surrealism can help indicate the tone or particular direction that the book is. going in. An example of this would be “dethrone god” my first novella and my second published book: there are elements of surrealist flight and fantasy in there, but it’s because you’re in Belfast with this character.

“And obviously walking through Belfast City centre at night time isn't necessarily the most interesting thing in the world at the best of times so not only does it reflect a drab reality, but it also gives the reader hints as to the narrator’s state of mind.

“Similarly, the character of Gilbert in Soineanta Maskirovka is someone who has been through a lot which means he doesn't act like a typical retiree but it leads him into situations which make him question his own perception of his history.”

Belfast lurks large in his work, and it is as an observer Christoper regards the character of the city.

“Sometimes I do bring a notepad with me to note little quirks about the city. Sometimes I refer to photographs,” he explained.” Other times I would read bits of history and reference them as well as memories growing up as a kid.

“I’ve always found the city of Belfast a fascinating sort of place and a lot of that comes from Resurrection Man because Belfast is very much a character in that book. I always liked the idea of the city being bigger than the narrator. It reminds me of that Pailhead lyric: “You engineer the stratosphere/You commandeer this hemisphere…Rearrange forms of life/Battle night with your lights/But water will still come.’

“Ultimately, it has been here since 1613 in some shape or form and it has engulfed far more of us than we would probably like to imagine.”

It has another clear resonance in his most recent published book.

“In Soviet Hotel Dressing Gown, it’s quite obvious that the two characters (Jake and Roibeard) are haunted by Belfast and they’ve taken their experiences to Glasgow and Birmingham respectively. Cities which have been the focus of immigration for centuries and it was interesting to see how they reacted to their respective locations based on their relationship with Belfast.”

He continued: “There are certainly composites of people that I have encountered in my time, people that I’ve heard about, people I’ve read about and elements of myself as well. One thing that you often hear about writers is that they hate writing characters because they’re unpredictable at the best of times and I agree with that sentiment. But what I do find is that if you have a really good character or one with a particularly interesting arc, the character should surprise you. 

“For example, with Roibeard in Soviet Hotel Dressing Gown, I had initially thought of him as a hood. Then once I discovered that his uncle had been murdered as a child and that the grandmother had raised Roibeard, that gave the character a depth and a perspective that I hadn’t considered before. So while he’s still a hood, there is a back story there.”

Christopher believes each writer should follow his own direction.

“I don't really like telling writers what to write or implying that writers should be doing this or that, because ultimately writers should be following their own muses,” he said. “Now, whether it's a muse or vision that interests me is a different matter. But ultimately, if it's something that is true to the individual author, then I think they should follow it regardless of trends.”

And that no doubt will be trends that he bucks in his new book. 

“It is based on a true story that happened to a friend of mine a number of years ago where he was supposed to go to Derry for Christmas to visit his parents and for a variety of reasons ended up missing the last train to Derry on Christmas Eve. So, he had to spend Christmas Day by himself in a bedsit. Apparently, it wasn’t very fun. 

“It seemed a fascinating idea because Christmas is traditionally the time when people come together so what is it like for someone who spends it alone?

“And especially in the last few years, there's been a lot of talk as to what Christmas means in a secular society and maybe even a multi-faith society as well. So, I want to try and really explore that.

“Obviously it'll probably won’t be as bad as what happened to my friend. But at the same time there is a challenge as there's obviously not really an awful lot to do so what will this character go through, how it will shape them and will it lead to anything are challenges that I’m very much looking forward to exploring. Whether it comes out that way or not is a different matter altogether.”

One thing is sure, if readers enjoyed his previous works, they will eagerly await this festive tale. Maybe Christopher should bring forward publication to December.

All of Christopher's books are available via his Amazon page.