Scala Radio Book Club: Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May
Revolutionary, poet, lover. Robber, murderer, spy.
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
In the Scala Radio Book Club this week (Thursday 3rd March), Mark Forrest chatted to British novelist, playwright and TV writer, Stephen May on his latest book and Indie Book of the Month, Sell Us the Rope.
Revolutionary, poet, lover. Robber, murderer, spy.
May 1907 and a young Stalin is in London for a conference of Russian communists. With Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxemburg among others, he battles to keep the party radical, while dodging the attentions of the Czar's secret police. He also finds himself drawn to a fiery Finnish activist, Elli Vuokko, beginning a relationship that is as dangerous as it is complicated.
From the author of the Costa Novel Award-nominated book Life! Death! Prizes!, Stephen May’s historical fiction reimagines Stalin’s 1907 trip to London for a conference, with the likes of Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg in the supporting cast.
Mark was interested to know more about Stalin’s personality as a young man. ‘At this point in the novel, Stalin is 29 and he's in London. How much of the tyrant that he was to become is already apparent in his character?’
‘Well, not that much,’ said Stephen. ‘It seems to me that he was able to rise partly because others didn't see him as the threat he later became. He was called and dismissed by some of the other Russian leadership as a ‘grey man’. One of my early titles for this novel was ‘A Grey Man in London’. He kept his head down in many ways and was a behind the scenes operator until he wasn't. When people realised that, it was a bit too late. When he manoeuvred himself into a position of power and authority, it was too late for anyone to do much about it.’
Mark said, ‘He is so fascinating and really humanised in your book, through his extraordinary friendship and his care for Arthur Bacon. Did this friendship did happen?’
‘Yeah, definitely,’ said Stephen. ‘Arthur Bacon was the son of the landlord where Stalin stayed when he was in London. Arthur gave an interview in the 1950s, where he said he’d overcharged Stalin. Stalin would send him out to get him sweets and run errands, and it seemed that Arthur Bacon, in this interview, still seems to feel slightly remorseful for having overcharged Stalin for the job. I think one of the things with my book is there are lots of implausible things in it, and the most implausible turn out to be the most likely to have been true.’
Mark finished the interview asking, ‘A lot of authors we've spoken to in the Scala Radio Book Club, have said that lockdown worked for them in all sorts of different ways. It gave them space and a different backdrop to what they were doing. How did it affect you and your writing?’
‘For my writing, it was actually pretty good. I could retire to my room in the time I’d normally spent on a train or commuting. As I was working, I was able to do a lot more research. I think writers, like other artists, I suppose, are divided into two camps. There were those who were able to weaponize lockdown in some ways, and then there were those who were paralysed by it. And I think mostly I was energised by it rather than paralysed by it.’
Find out about more Scala Radio Book Club guests here >>
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