Prosecast host Cathi Bond spoke with Martin Walker, author of the utterly charming  Bruno, Chief of Police about his influences, the global politics of immigration, and the love he has for the country of France. These are just the first few questions, head on over to Prosecast.com to listen to the entire episode.

Cathi Bond: I thoroughly enjoyed Bruno, Chief of Police. I’m curious, after everything else that  you’ve achieved in your career, why did you want to write a crime novel about a policeman in France?

Martin Walker: For many years now I’ve had a small house in France, in the Dardone, in the countryside and my local chief of police is my tennis partner, and a great friend. We eat and play tennis together — he’s even taken me hunting. I’ve always thought my particular chum was one of the wisest men I’d ever met and an extraordinarily gifted policeman who understands it’s his job to stop trouble before it starts. Because I love this area of France, and I’ve become kind of an adopted person there, and because I’m so fond of this character it seemed to me that it was crying out to have the novel written about him and about the place. Equally some of the issues I raise about immigration, the Arabs who live here, and the effect of the Second World War, are also things that impinge upon you once you become a part of this culture.

CB: And then now I guess we should also talk about the crime. An elderly Muslim man is found murdered in a very very grizzly fashion. Why did you choose a Muslim victim in France?

MW: I’ve been a journalist for many years, and one of the assignments that I had, almost by accident, was [covering] the wave of riots across France that you recall happened two years ago, particularly in the areas all around Paris, and the Bouliere where so many of the North African immigrants and Muslim immigrants live. It lasted for nearly three weeks and it spread to over 300 towns and cities across France.   Tens of thousands of cars were burned, there were a lot of arrests, and a couple of deaths. It was a really shattering thing for France and it brought out into the open two things: first of all the increasing importance of the Front nationale, that’s a very right wing — extreme right wing — anti-immigration party. So there’s this long, powerful subterranean political force of anti-immigration, plus in terms of the numbers, something like six million people in France are now either immigrants or children of immigrants of North African or Muslim origin and inevitably that’s a very, very powerful issue politically.

And second of all, socially it’s something people talk about all the time; it’s a very constant theme. I wanted to bring that into the novel because one of the problems about writing about the charm of France is it’s almost too [easy] and sweet to write about the wines, the foods, the weather, and the traditions. The truth is crime happens everywhere, and it happens here in Rural France. There was a killing of an elderly Arab immigrant that took place a couple of years ago not too far from where I live.

CB: You’ve been talking a lot about France, but are you seeing this in other parts of the world? Do you see it as something that’s a more profound global human condition?

MW: I think it is. I mean you certainly see it elsewhere in Europe. You see it in Britain, you see it in Germany with the Turkish minority, you see kinds of xenophobia of different forms in China and Japan, and you see a great concern on immigration in the United States. It seems to be a global reaction to both globalization and this huge migration pattern that we’re seeing all across the world these days. There’s an undercurrent running through my novel as well, another tension, and that is one that dates back to the Second World War and which side you were on during the time when France was occupied by the Germans and run by Vichy. And in my village there are still families who don’t talk together to each other because one side was for Vichy and the other side was for De Gaulle and the resistance. And that’s another current that I bring into my novel, which is one that I think most French people understand is a very powerful political dynamic to this day.

CB: Why did you do it?

MW: On the one hand I’m deeply fond of France, deeply attracted to it, I love spending time here. On the other hand, for many years I’ve been a professional journalist, and I’m a professional foreign correspondent. I’ve reported from all of the world’s continents. One thing I’ve always automatically set myself to do is to understand something of the history of the country where I’m based. You can not understand France without realizing there is still a division between the France that was for the revolution and the France that was against the Revolution. This is the revolution of 1789! The France that was for the Catholic Church and the France that was deeply anti-clerical. The France that was for the monarchy, the France that was against it. The France that was for De Gaulle, the France that was against De Gaulle. And these traditions continue almost unbroken throughout French history.

Listen to the rest of the interview at Prosecast.com.