 Going Underground interviews Keith Lowe author of Tunnel Vision. Here's a quick introductory synopsis from Amazon:
"Until now, Andy's interest in the London Underground has been relatively harmless. Rachel, his long- suffering fiancee, has long since learnt to put up with it. But on the eve of their wedding, in a fit of last-minute nerves, Andy makes a drunken bet which threatens to ruin everything. His task is to travel to every tube station on the system in a single day (267 stations - not including the newish Jubilee Line Extension). As part of the challenge his passport, his honeymoon tickets and his credit cards have been hidden in various places along the way - he has just 20 hours to find them all and complete his journey or the wedding is off."
Now onto the interview, I'll give you my opinion of the book at the end:
Going Underground (GU) Thanks for very much for agreeing to be interviewed, Keith. Unfortunately this interview is going to take a bit of a trainspottery approach, as my whole site is about the tube. So I'm not really going to touch too much on the relationship between Andy & Rachel or even Andy & Brian (the drunken tramp that helps him with his bet) for that matter. Although without spoiling the story too much, Rachel must be mad!
Firstly, obvious starter question - what inspired the book
?
Keith Lowe (KL) I really wanted to set a novel on the tube, simply because at the time very
few people seemed to have done so. It is such a big part of so many
people's everyday lives, it seemed like the perfect setting. Then one day I
heard a story on the radio about a man called Robert Robinson who had just
travelled to every single station in a single day. That was the seed that
started the whole idea...
GU It's your first novel, how did you feel when you learnt it would be published?
KL Overwhelmed. I've been writing ever since I was a teenager, so this really
was the realisation of a life-long ambition. To tell you the truth I didn't
know where to put myself - one moment I was struggling along writing the
book, seemingly without a hope of getting anywhere, and the next moment it
had been snapped up by publishers in Britain, Germany, Sweden, the States
and Japan. It was mind-blowing!
GU Andy and his friend Rolf who makes the bet, are complete trainspotters. Did you meet any characters that come close to being as obsessed as they are when you were researching the book?
KL Yes, lots. I had to make Rolf quite sinister to fit in with the way the
plot was going, which is a shame because I've never met a sinister
trainspotter in my life. All the people I've met know that there's
something faintly absurd about their hobby, and they know people make fun of
it, but they really don't care. They just love what they do - so more power
to them. I think there's something charmingly eccentric about that.
GU A friend gave you the idea of the title "Tunnel Vision", was this before or after Christopher Ross's non ficiton book "Tunnel Visions" - also about the tube?
KL I had the title long before I had ever heard of Christopher Ross. Imagine
my shock when, a few months before my own book is due to be published, I
walked past a shop window and saw another book there with virtually the same
title as mine! Fortunately they are very, very different - otherwise I don't
know what I would have done!
GU One of my favourite passages from the book is the following: "The tube is the whore of railway systems - millions use her, millions despise her, and while we wish she wasn't necessary most of us appreciate that she's actually providing a pretty useful service" What are your personal pet tube loves and hates?
KL I love the tube late at night, in winter. When it's really cold outside
there's nowhere cosier than a Northern Line train. And at night people tend
to talk to each other a bit more - it's not like rush hour when everyone
buries their faces in their books. As for pet hates, I just wish the system
ran efficiently. What's there to hate except for the delays?
GU Do you have a fondness for any particular tube station or a personal favourite?
KL Camden Town, because you never really know what you're going to see there -
it's the most unpredictable place on the system I can think of. Or perhaps
Charing Cross - that's the best place to people-watch. You get all walks of
life there - business men and women, homeless people, buskers, actors, even
film stars.
GU I also liked the "Vestibule of Hell" chapter where you write in slightly biblical style or maybe you parody Milton's "Paradise Lost": "See how the tunnel yawns before me! It is dark, as a sepulchure is dark, and from it cometh an odour such as exists not on the surface of the earth. I am fearful, for a wind stirreth from within, and bloweth at the dust which hath settled about my feet."
What inspired this?
KL This is the part of the book where Andy falls asleep and has a dream that
he's on a train to hell. It was actually inspired by the beginning of
Dante's Inferno, when Virgil is just about to enter the underworld - that
has a hallucinatory quality which seemed appropriate for a dream. Obviously
there are parallels between being underground and being in hell - but there
are also parallels between the Underground and the subconscious. The book
is not only about Andy's rush to travel to every station in a day, it's also
a personal journey - so putting the dream section here was a perfect
opportunity to show some of Andy's deepest fears coming to life. If he
loses his bet, then in some respects he will be in hell.
GU Would you say your novel is "laddish book" or would you say there's something for the "laydeez" too?
KL The book is written from a man's point of view, but I wouldn't say it was a
laddish book. It's a race against time, and it's a love story - that's for
everyone, don't you think? Actually, I think my favourite character is
Rachel. She's really feisty, and only the fact that she is desperately in
love with Andy stops her from clocking him. I'm sure there are plenty of
women who would sympathise with that...
GU If your book was made into a film or TV drama, who do you think would play Andy, Rachel, Brian and Rolf?
KL Lots of people have asked me that! I've had plenty of suggestions too -
everyone from Hugh Grant and Rachel Weiss to Dennis Waterman - but to tell
you the truth, after you've spent so many years with these people inside
your brain, I think it's difficult to imagine any actor playing them. I
suppose that's what casting directors are for.
GU A reviewer made the following comment on your book "This is not just a superficial adventure. Lowe's efforts to portray the London Underground as an analogy to life is made clear in the decision Andy has to make throughout his journey." What do you think of that statement?
KL I think that just about sums up what I was intending to do. First and
foremost this is an adventure story, based on Jules Verne's 'Around the
World in Eighty Days' (only the world in this case is shrunk down to the
London Underground). But it's also the story of one of the most important
moments in a man's life: the day before his wedding. It's one thing saying
that you're going to commit your life to someone, but actually doing it is a
massive decision that can't be taken lightly. Andy's journey round the tube
is also a journey towards an answer to the ultimate question: is he ready to
make that leap?
GU Have you ever carried out a ridiculous a bet of this nature yourself?
KL Kind of. When the book first came out I attempted to travel the whole
system in a day as a sort of publicity stunt. Unfortunately the day I
picked saw some of the worst delays for years, so I failed. Miserably.
GU How many stations would you say you actually visited yourself?
KL Almost all of them at one point or another - but with many of them I was
just passing through, so I'm not sure if that counts.
GU West London is dear to my heart. Did you know that Turnham Green (which features towards the end of your book), doesn't have a "footbridge" but an "underpass"?
KL Dammit - you've caught me out! I tried so hard to get all the details
right, but there was always going to be a mistake or two. Hopefully it is
just one or two.
GU Andy was flabbergasted as he realised he'd left out Mornington Crescent - but what about Chiswick Park? Following his route through the book he seems to have missed that one too.
KL Well whatever you do, don't tell him! He'd be devastated if he knew...
GU How much help did you get from the London Underground and the London Transport Museum?
KL The London Underground Museum has a fantastic library, which was absolutely
essential for the research - but other than that I was pretty much on my
own.
GU You also got some help from the London Underground Railway Society (LURS) - some of their members must be a bit like Andy and Rolf. How has the LURS reacted to the book?
KL I haven't heard from them, actually - I've kind of lost touch. Which is a
shame, because they really were helpful. In some ways I'm not sure if I
want to know what they think - they're bound to pick up all kinds of
inaccuracies...!
GU Did you talk to or contact Robert Robinson, the current world record holder for travelling the whole system in 19 hours, 59 minutes and 37 seconds?
KL I tried to get in contact once, but never managed. I'd be fascinated to
meet him.
GU Did you get any other advice on the route?
KL A couple of people at the LURS gave me quite a bit of help. Obviously I had to
modify their route in order to fit the plot round it, but the basics of what
they gave me are still there.
 GU You wrote: "If travelling round the tube were a quiz show, then South London would be the quick-fire round". In Chapter 30, Andy imagines he's being quizzed about various the routes and challenges you might face on the tube, particularly when changing lines and sitting on carriages which are nearest the exits. Have you ever seen "Mind the Gap" a TV quiz hosted by Paul Ross whose set mirrors a London Underground platform?
KL I never did manage to see that unfortunately. I was always at work when it
was on. I've heard it wasn't exactly a smash hit...
GU Who do you admire personally as a novelist?
KL Where do I begin?!! There are so many different people I admire for
different reasons. A few that spring to mind are Rupert Thomson, Haruki
Murakami (who wrote a book about the Tokyo subway gas attack), Anna Davis - but that's only scratching the surface. I read a
hell of a lot. It's much better than television!
GU You've already written your second novel due to be published in about a year's time. Could you tell us what it's about?
KL I'm half way through writing the next book, which will be set inside a
chocolate factory - but I won't say any more, because it might change by the
time I've finished it. What I will say, though, is that the research is
proving fun!
 GU You've carried out tons of research and a few months ago I noticed that you'd written an article for The Evening Standard. Any plans for non fiction book on the tube?
KL No chance! One of the joys about writing fiction is that at the end of the
day it doesn't matter too much if you make the odd factual mistake - what is
most important is the story and the way the characters interact with one
another. I've already done years of research into the tube in order to make
Tunnel Vision as authentic as possible, but to write a proper non-fiction
book on the subject would take much more. Much as I love the tube, I think
it's time to move on to other things.
I’d like to thank Keith for sparing me the time for this interview.
If you’d like to see the reviews from Amazon.co.uk click here or see the reviews from amazon.com. To read Chapter 1 from the book click here.
As well as being a great novel for Londoners and anyone who uses the tube on a regular basis, I found Tunnel Vision to be very well written, well paced and highly entertaining. There's some moments of excellence where we have a chapter written as a biblical text. A chapter where Andy is crushed in a tube carriage is written as one sentance with no spaces - and makes for pretty claustrophic but effective reading. The quiz show chapter is also good fun too. Don't worry if you haven't got a great knowledge of the tube either - you don't need it. Like this site Lowe describes life on the London Underground not from a historical viewpoint or as a political tract - he tells it as it is - albeit from a pretty humourous and wild starting point.
Go out and buy this book - it had me chuckling on the tube - making me break the classic London Underground rule "Thou must not smile on the tube"!
A note from GU - Someone in New York has tried to do the same thing as Andy and visit every subway station in a weekend. For their interesting account click here.
Transport Exchange
  
 
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