Neil Arksey |
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Neil Arksey is an actor who has performed, and taught at the new Globe Theatre in London. He has written stage, film and TV scripts. He lives in Camberwell, London.
Place & Date of Birth:
Don’t know
Favourite Books:
Huckleberry Finn, Northern Lights, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Marianne Dreams, Treasure Island
Favourite Songs:
Design For Life (Manic Street Preachers) No More Rain (Angie Stone), Faithless (Scritti Politti), Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix)
Most Treasured Possession:
Life
Favourite Film:
Bladerunner (Ridley Scott director’s cut)
What was the first book that you ever read?
Stig of the Dump
Where does your inspiration come from?
I don't know.
What was your biggest break?
Getting published.
What's your favourite place to write?
Anywhere with total peace and quiet.
What's the most exciting about the future?
I don't think about it.
When did you start writing?
At school. I remember getting a gold star for a (terrible) poem when I was 8, and that was the first (and for a long time the last) occasion anyone ever told me I was good at anything. But it counted for a lot. Somewhere between the age of 7 and 12 I had a love affair with reading, and being a writer seemed to be the most incredible, magical thing. But I was so in awe of the novels I enjoyed, it never occurred to me that writing books was something someone like me might able to do. That moment came quite recently.
Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
A tiny, shabby-looking shop on the corner of Whitfield St and Lausanne Rd. It’s open odd hours. Sometimes I go all the way down there only to discover it’s shut. The other day I was outside at just gone midday and the closed sign was in the window. But I’ve been past at three in the morning before now and they’ve been open for business. If the light’s on I’ll pop in and get what I need.
Can you give your top 3 tips to becoming a successful author
1 Read and write. Observe. Listen.
2 Never be afraid to write what you want to write.
3 Be critical of what you read and even more critical of what you’ve written.
Favourite memory
Waking up in a great mood really early on a beautiful sunny morning, I thought: what a perfect day to take the Porsche for a spin in the country. I threw on some clothes, grabbed my keys and dashed out into the street only to find my beautiful white Porsche 911 mk blah blah blah was gone! After running up and down the street to check I wasn’t mistaken about where I’d parked it, I resigned myself to calling the police to report it stolen. It was only when the person on the other end of the phone asked for the car’s registration that I realised I didn’t own a Porsche. At the time I don’t think I even owned a car.
Favourite place in the world and why?
Workington steelworks in Cumbria. Came across it by accident. Don’t know if it still exists today. By day, an enormous sprawling eyesore, by night it was transformed into a fantastic fire-breathing beast. A friend and I decided we had to take a closer look. We found our way in through a hole in the security fence and spent the whole night sneaking around the vast complex. Miles of hissing pipes. Rivers and waterfalls of spitting and sparkling molten steel. And only the occasional distant figure, their face concealed behind a chrome helmet. It was part cathedral, part machine, part giant alien spaceship. Very mysterious, very magical. Breathtakingly beautiful.
What are your hobbies?
There used to be a whole raft of other activities I was passionate about: street-skating, dancing, football, climbing and hill-walking, white water kayaking and surfing, but over the years the injuries have taken their toll. I used to paint and draw a lot when I was younger. I also sang and played the electric guitar in bands. But now that I write there doesn’t seem to be time for anything else. I swim and ride my bikes.
If you hadn't been a writer what do you think you would have been?
I was an actor before I started writing. And a whole host of other things before that. When I was ten I was set on being either a fisherman or a stuntman. I’ve had occasional fantasies about being a lighthouse-keeper. But the real dream would be to spend my days on a surfboard chasing waves...
