Rohmer defines the Dark Ages as 476 to 1050 AD, and starts with films set in the Arthurian Cycle and ends just before the Norman Conquests. He is primarily a film historian and sets out, film by film, to note the eccentricities and idiosyncrasies of celluloid history. For instance, he notes that Clive Donner’s film Alfred The Great (1969) is a ‘late Sixties attempt to do a historical epic in the language of youth revolt’. Whereas Antonie Fuqua’s big-budget King Arthur ‘vacillates inconclusively between hard, R-rated historical war film, Bruckheimer summer spectacle and parable about empire and freedom’. I’ve been a fan of Rohmer series since the beginning and I’m pleased to say that all of his observations are a delight to read. The balance between historical context, behind the scenes content and critical analysis is exactly what one would wish.

Treat yourself to a copy of this wonderful book, and don’t be surprised if it sends you in pursuit of the movies that shed light on the Dark Ages.

In the latest episode of Ellroy Reads, I examine the influence of Greene’s novel on Red Sheet, as well as the importance of Mexico as a location in Ellroy’s life and fiction. Hope you enjoy the show, and do remember to subscribe to the channel, like, comment and share the content.

This time the focus is on actors, who after editors are often the bane of most authors existence! Adam Cunningham is a solicitor and enthusiastic practitioner of amateur dramatics. Cunningham is involved with the Hopewell Players, who are staging a play by the late dramatist Othniel Soulby. However, Cunningham suspects the shoddily written play is a forgery and the aspiring thesps at the Hopewell Players are not all that they seem to be. He enlists Roly Wilkes, now an established detective of all things literary, to investigate. What follows is an entertaining and often very funny romp in which Ripley lands potshots at the theatre, local politics, archaic class structures, small-town grudges and other indispensable aspects of English life.

Roly Wilkes is a beguiling character who seems equally at home in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction as he does in a modern novel.

James Ellroy wrote the preface to the French translation to Wanderer, which I read in English for the latest episode of Ellroy Reads. Hope you enjoy the show, and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel.

“Hey, hey” was how Ellroy greeted me.

He was clearly in a buoyant mood, and he had every right to be. This was our first conversation since I had landed the contract with Bloomsbury to be his biographer, and he was delighted that I was the one who had the nerve to put his life-story, with all its triumphs and disasters, into print.

“You’re sitting on a pot of money, Steve” he said by way of congratulations as ‘You’ve got the CONTRACT’ and vowed that he was “going to tell me everything.”

Candour seemed to be the initial theme of our work together. You might say that intimacy was the first order of business as he was insistent that I interview his ex-partners, which I duly did, and had some in-depth conversations with them which greatly benefitted the book, although Ellroy would get nervous when he knew I was getting ready to talk to someone who he thought had an axe to grind. He warned me that one of them ‘is going to rat me out. Call me a racist, sexist, homophobe, fascist etc.’ He couldn’t have been more wrong about this. Ellroy’s ex-partners gave a very balanced portrait of the man and author they had been in a relationship with for several years. Naturally, embarassing details would sometimes crop up, such as how Ellroy had argued with a girlfriend over Dave Chappelle. She was a fan. Ellroy was not.

‘Dave Chappelle was a good cat’ Ellroy enthused to me, when I brought this to him. ‘I had a blast with him on Conan, and he wanted me to do the town with him afterwards, but I said no, I don’t cheat on my wife.’

I found this response bizarre at first, but telling in retrospect. Chappelle was not inviting him to a sex party but was simply asking him to socialize. Ellroy was eager to ease my discomfort when such matters came up in conversation. ‘You never have to worry about telling me anything, Steve’ he said, at his most disarming, once we had wrapped up the talk.

I would periodically update Ellroy on my progress. Those conversations could be stressful or agreeable, depending on the nature of my research at the time. Sometimes Ellroy could be disarming if he could tell I was worried about breaking bad news. For instance, one time I informed that an ex-girlfriend had felt ‘haunted’ by their former relationship.

‘She was haunted by me’ he said in disbelief, ‘…well, good.’

Sometimes he would brief me prior to a conversation with an ex-partner. One relationship, which he had immortalised in his novel Blood’s a Rover, gave Ellroy some consternation when I sent out an interview request. He had spoken to the lady in question once since their break-up in a phone call which she instigated but Ellroy found to be ‘completely perfunctory’ and ‘I had the feeling that something was on her mind’. Ellroy was pleased when she told him that she had read The Hilliker Curse, another book he had written covering the relationship, ‘but astonishingly she hadn’t read Blood’s a Rover’. Ultimately, ‘I’ve got no idea how she’ll respond’ he told me.

The response, when it came, was not good. The ex-partner rejected to being ‘fictionalised’, even though I made it clear that I was writing a biography and referred to her former fiancée dismissively by his surname. Ellroy was taken aback when I reported back to him, ‘she really said that about me?’ Then the humour returned to his voice, ‘it’s a good dog’s name isn’t it – ELLROY!’

He was calm and objective in giving me advice on how to respond to such setbacks: ‘Well, I would stress to her that it’s not fiction, it’s a scholarly biography’ Ellroy replied calmly, ‘and assure her that you won’t contact her again. Cease and desist.’ But his mood changed when I told him about other things she had told me about the relationship. ‘That is not going in the book. She’ll sue you. She’ll sue me. She’ll make both of our lives miserable.’

Not every difficult moment related to an ex-partner. Ellroy, for instance, was dismissive of the reinvestigation of his mother’s murder for My Dark Places, claiming her knew early on, ‘We’re not gonna find the guy. I’ve just gotta go through with this.’ His ill-feeling towards that time had ultimately led to the end of his friendship with Bill Stoner, although he declined to give a specific reason, merely stating that they had lost touch and it was ‘one of those things’. He still carried a lot of respect for Stoner. A feeling that was mutual. Perhaps no friendship could have survived the nervous breakdown Ellroy suffered while on The Cold Six Thousand book tour in 2001, which he firmly believed had its genesis in My Dark Places.

But ultimately most of the problems would come back to the thorny issue of Ellroy’s ex-partners. After I interviewed one woman who had been treated particularly shabbily, Ellroy responded ‘I’ve expressed racial animus before, it’s wrong.’ The woman in question accused Ellroy of making racially-charged comments to her. ‘It’s a sin’. The comment might sound like a platitude, but it was Ellroy’s way of conveying genuine remorse by examining his behaviour through the Christian lens of being a sinner. He could repent about it and move on. My dilemma as a biographer was how to balance Ellroy’s private life, or ‘sins’ as he might put it, against his stunning accomplishments in American literature.

The reader will be the judge.

This was the first letter I received from Ellroy after Bloomsbury gave me the contract to write his biography. I love the sensational spelling and the inimitable Demon Dog voice. Behind the swagger, however, you can tell that Ellroy is anticipating this will be a controversial project.

3/3/20

Dear Steve,

Soul Brutha, dat was goooooooood and gassy news that you’re writing the first full-on James Ellroy bio, and that Bloomsbury will be publishing it. I’ve got about 16 trillion questions about the book – such as what have you learned about my murky family life, both my parents being dissemblers and jive artists, and how many of my pissed-off ex-girlfriends have you managed to locate????? How will you deal with my ultra-Tory views in Today’s hothouse haze?????

Call me this week, Daddy-O. I got questions. Did you determine Joan Rosen Klein’s real-life identity — the “to J.M.” dedication of Blood’s a Rover — along with This Storm, my most romantic novel. The dedication to that book had to be an easy grab for you.

Keep the faith. I’m thrilled this is happening. Yo book gonna be goooooooood like a rabid pit bull!!!!!!

Godspeed,

Ellroy

I was fortunate in how generous Ellroy was in sharing his work, particularly unpublished work which I would see in tandem with Knopf. The Enchanters was a particularly exciting project as it marked a break from the planned Second LA Quartet, a decision that both Knopf and I felt was a good one, and it brought Ellroy much professional relief and personal fulfillment.

12/3/21

Dear Steve,

Kry havoc and let slip the Hell Hounds of War!!!!!

AAAOOOOHHHH!!!!!

Today, Leslie will be emailing you the 422-page outline for The Enchanters. It is FOR YOUR EYES ONLY!!!!!

Let’s talk when you have a moment. It’s been waaaaaaaaaay too long!!!!!!

Godspeed to you and yours,

Ellroy

After a somewhat tense moment in my research, things began to get a little frosty between Ellroy and I. However, he is a remarkably big-hearted and generous guy. He sent a gift of the complete series of The Fugitive and The Naked City on DVD, possibly as an olive branch. He wanted me to analyse Lois Nettleton’s performances, as he had made her the leading lady and Fred Otash’s girlfriend in The Enchanters.

11/21/20

Dear Steve,

So, Brother – what do you think of Lois Nettleton? Please feel free to respond at some length.

Godspeed, Ellroy

I would occasionally send gifts to Ellroy. For his seventy-fourth birthday I sent him a copy of volume three of Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher. James is a conservative and a staunch admirer of Lady Thatcher, so I think I judged the gift well. Within a year of me sending him this gift, Love Me Fierce in Danger was published and readers could judge for themselves how accurate and compelling my biography of him had been.

3/15/22

Dear Steve,

Kry havoc and let slip the Blasphemous Bloodhounds of War!!!!!

And – most of all – many thanks for your thunderously thoughtful birthday gift of the concluding volume of Charles Moore’s Margaret Thatcher biography. It will – when combined with the first two volumes – lay the lowdown on the Great Woman’s life on me in significant and pithy detail. Not only do you rule all literary biographers, you rule all gift givers!!!!!

Godspeed, Ellroy

Thank you to everyone who submitted a question. If you asked a question and I didn’t get to answer it then don’t worry, I will do another Q&A episode soon.

Here is Part Two:

As you have come to expect from the show, I give plenty of behind the scenes content about Ellroy’s professional relationship with Vanity Fair. Moreover, I discuss the events which led to the brutal murder of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert and the disturbing miscarriage of justice that followed.

Enjoy the episode, and do remember to subscribe to the channel, like, share and comment on the content.

Dunn was a gifted and fascinating author. In the latest episode of Ellroy Reads, I discuss Dunn’s life of triumph and tragedy. I also talk about her friendship with James Ellroy and read from some letters that Ellroy wrote to her.

Enjoy the episode, and do remember to subscribe to the channel, like, share and comment on the content.

You can read my review of Red Sheet here, and watch my review of the novel on the Ellroy Reads channel.