Author Q&A with Graham Hunter

I had the pleasure of reading Graham’s book, Comrades, Concubines, and Lovers back in 2021 and found it a thrilling, emotional, and educational read.

A truly fascinating read. The story recounts Graham’s life and his experiences as a travelling salesman from the 80’s through to 2000. Graham’s experiences around the world were truly fascinating, especially his memories of Russia in the 80s. However, the story truly captured my heart when Graham met a very lovely Russian lady. Their struggles to be together were truly shocking. This book pulled at my heart strings and left me pondering the ways of the world.

Thank you, Graham, for sharing your life so openly with us.

I originally started my working career as a Clinical Pathologist having embarked on a six year course to qualify. Although I loved my job, having to work frequent weekends “on call” which involved working from 9.00am on Friday to 5.00pm on Monday with little sleep, it took its toll. I was always envious of the life style of the sales representatives that called on me, so much so that when I saw an advert for a job with a Medical Equipment company I applied for it and got it. How my life changed – brand new fully funded company car, expense account, posh lunches with customers and only working Monday to Friday with no night work. My Pathology knowledge was put to good use. I changed companies a couple of times until I was employed as an Export Manager by a company in the developing field of Image Analysis, which is where my book starts. I was really thrown in at the deep end was given carte blanche to travel the world, visiting places I could only have dreamt of in the past. However, with no initial training on how to behave in different countries, I made many faux pas and quickly learnt by my mistakes, many of which are detailed in my book.

How did you come to write your book?

For years I had been telling my stories at dinner parties where most people found them hard to believe. I was often told that I should write a book but I shied away from this idea as I thought my stories were too explicit to publish and that I might embarrass several people if I identified them. When my mother died I employed a humanist to officiate at the ceremony and discovered that she was also a professional ghost writer. At the wake I bounced a few of my stories off her and her immediate reply was that I had the makings of a good book. She offered to ghost write it for me (at a very expensive fee) but said the best thing I could do was just to start writing and get the details down on paper and concentrate on refining it into a readable story later. Shortly after that I had to have some surgery after which my surgeon said that I should not lift anything heavier than a pint of beer for at least six weeks. What was I to do during this time? I decided that I could lift up a pen and started writing.

Comrades, Concubines & Lovers is filled with emotion. Was it difficult at times reliving some of the events in your book?

Yes it was extremely difficult to write some of the more emotional stories and often found my eyes streaming with tears. When I took a rest and came down from my study for a coffee break I felt weird, as if I had just relived the event and became very emotional. I was told later that it had been cathartic for me to write my stories as I needed to get certain things out in the open. I decided right from the start to be very open with my personal details and relationships and I believe I have reduced many of my readers to tears as well.

Tell me about the first story you wrote

The first story in my book describes how I got a new job after a very acrimonious marriage breakup and was sent to Poland (then communist) after 4 weeks, with little training other than product knowledge. It describes the faux pas I made and how I nearly got arrested for trying to take illegally acquired local currency out of the country. It also describes my feelings when I was taken to a WW2 concentration camp and shown how the Nazis treated the Jews.

How did you begin your journey as a writer?

The first thing I did was to prepare an Excel spreadsheet with all the details I had in all my diaries that I had kept. This included dates, flight numbers, countries, hotels, expenses plus a section for comments on what happened on each trip. I also had hundreds of photographs that I used to help me with my descriptions of each event. I also changed the names of people I did not want to identify and used their pseudonyms in my narrative. Then armed with an old fashioned fountain pen with black ink, I started writing. To my surprise it started to flow. All the memories came flooding back and I was hooked on writing. My dear wife supported me 100% and put up with me being in the study for hours on end and even proof read all my first drafts for me.

Do you write in the same genre that you read?

I couldn’t say that I wrote in the same genre that I read but I did enjoy all the Ian Fleming James Bond stories and often felt that I was living a similar lifestyle.

Do you have a writing schedule?

No I didn’t set myself a schedule but was told that it needed to be in excess of 80,000 words so just kept writing. I always knew what the beginning and end would be so I just had to fill in the middle bit! As it happened I got to around 125,00 words when I reached the end.

What’s your favourite childhood book?

My favourite childhood books were the Famous Five stories by Enid Blyton.

Have you ever had to cut a scene or character from a book that you loved, but it just didn’t work?

I did have to cut one story that I eluded to in one of the chapters. Although being very interesting it would have incriminated one of my characters so I decided to to leave it out. It wasn’t as if I was short of stories to tell and I had many more that I could have used. I think 125,000 words was enough.

Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you overcome it?

I don’t remember getting writer’s block as I had so much material to work with. Just reflecting on my photographs was enough to bring all the memories flooding back and help me describe scenarios accurately.

What are you writing at the moment?

I have had lots of requests to write a follow up story. I did write the first chapter and bounced it off a few people which only served to strengthen the requests. However I believe it would only be of interest to people who have read Comrades, Concubines and Lovers as it starts from the end of the last chapter. Reading this second book first would spoil the effect of C, C & L if the reader then chose to read it.

What are you reading at the moment?

At the moment I am reading Under a Blood Red Sky by Kate Furnivall. She specialises in stories about post revolutionary Russia which I love because I have experienced first hand what she writes about.

Finally I would like to add a big thank you to both Cerys Pinkman and Millie Belding, two very talented Batchelor of Art students at Welsh Universities. Cerys spent weeks working with me, editing my book and her friend Millie designed the artwork for my book cover. Both these ladies are now able to add this to their CVs in the start of their careers. Cerys has just informed me that she has just got her Masters degree this year.

You can find Graham on Twitter

Author Q&A with Graham Hunter