Tracey McCallum speaks to Ross Macfarlane KC, advocate, author and creator of Edward Kane & Mr Horse – Collected Short Stories Volume 1.
Born in Glasgow in 1958, Ross Macfarlane was called to the Scottish Bar in 1994 and nominated by his peers as a ‘noted expert’ in the field of Child and Family Law. His literary creations, Edward Kane, Advocate and Mr Horse were described by The Scotsman as ‘The most entertaining crime duo since Holmes and Watson.’ After 50 years, Ross has returned to Glasgow and lives and writes in the West End.
Did you visit the West End when you were younger?
No, I was born in the South Side, Crown Street in the Gorbals. The West End and Byres Road always seemed an impossibly exotic place, full of movie makers, soap actors and professional footballers.
Gorbals boy to KC, that’s quite an achievement. Was law always your career of choice?
No. My first job was actually as a session guitar player – aged 15 – in wee recording studios in Glasgow. I would skip school and sit at home and study records by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, copying their styles and tunings. I got work in recording studios playing for folk artists because I could play the right kind of chords and picking patterns etc. I still play every day.
Any lawyers in the family before you?
I’m the first. I was seduced in TV and films by the theatricality (so I thought) of the whole thing – the wig and gown, the courtroom drama, the swaying of a jury and stuff like that. Of course, in reality, it actually involved a lot of long hours, hard work and sheer discipline.
What drew you to your specialism of Child and Family Law?
I did my legal traineeship in a tiny law firm in Leith in Edinburgh. They let me loose on clients on the very first day. A woman came in and said: ‘I’ve got a letter here. They’re gonnae take my weans away.’ I said: ‘When?’ She said: ‘Tomorrow…’ That was the start of it. Client after client experiencing poverty and social deprivation – and the kids always seemed to bear the brunt of it. I worked long hours in every case – just to make a difference. The sheer volume of the work, I suppose, gave me a kind of accidental expertise in the field. Later, as an Advocate, I created the Family Law Reports as a way of promoting greater understanding of Family Law generally.
Your writing – how did it start?
In the great Glesga tradition, I come from a family of storytellers. My dad was a chef (I have to pronounce that very carefully – because I’m a KC, people think I’m saying that my dad was a sheriff!) – and he loved telling stories. He would nip out for a pint of milk and not come back for two days. Then, when he returned, he would always have an outlandish story. The problem is that this was Glasgow – so there was every chance that the story was actually true.
How did you manage to have such a demanding career and find the time to write too?
I’ve learned to be good at saying ‘No’. I’m really protective of my time and I try not to waste it. I’ve found that so many people are careless with their own time – so they end up wasting your time too. I try to find time for the things and people that matter instead. Also, I try to write some fiction every day if I can – even if it’s only for twenty minutes – it soon mounts up.
You’re a KC and your stories have a legal setting?
Yes, there’s generally a legal strain running through them because the leading character is a young Advocate called Edward Kane and he’s knocking around the Supreme Courts in Auld Reekie – scrambling for work, like I used to do at the start of my legal career.
In a world of gritty, dark crime drama, your short stories are a very genteel read & laced with humour. What made you go down this route?
I’d rather leave my readers with a smile on their face than a fear of the dark. I’m also seeing more appreciation of what’s being called Cosy Crime. It’s always been there – Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and the like. That’s the kind of thing I’m aiming at – good, decent characters with a strong moral compass solving crimes and mysteries in a colourful setting. In my case, a young Advocate and his Cockney manservant in Scotland in the 1850s.
How did you get your stories published in the Scotsman?
It started as a kind of accident. They came to me for a comment about a famous singing teacher who had just died. Ian Adam was singing teacher to the stars – Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, Michael Ball and the like – and I had known him from when I lived in London, so they asked for a comment from me. Ian had told me a chilling ghost story that had happened to him when he was growing up as a young man in a remote Scottish village. I thought it was such a pity that the story would be lost, so I wrote it up and The Scotsman newspaper published it as a piece of short fiction alongside the tribute to him. Later that year, they contacted me to say: ‘Well, you’re obviously a short story writer – do you have any other stories we can put in our Christmas edition?’ I didn’t. But [laughs] I soon ‘found’ one. And I’ve written fiction ever since.
Are there any aspects of Edward Kane or Mr. Horse that are based on yourself?
The occupation – Advocate – of course. The struggles of the young Advocate trying to get work and being completely out of their depth – check! I’ll not say too much about the portrayal of furious judges yelling at Advocates – there’s still a crime in Scotland called ‘murmuring judges’ – so I’ll leave that aspect to your imagination!
Is there more to come from this duo?
Yip – the full-length novel ‘Edward Kane and the Parlour Maid Murderer’ is out and in the shops/Amazon/Kindle at the moment and I’ve actually now finished the sequel to that – another novel. I am shopping around for a new publisher at the moment, so watch this space.
You’ve also written a novel set in the Gorbals, tell us a little about that?
It’s 1964 – two old ladies come into a bit of money and decide – as a last hurrah – to form a detective agency based in St Enoch Square, across the road from Dizzy Corner. Lots of great situations, colourful characters and (I hope) great Glasgow banter.
Aside from writing & music, what do you do for fun?
I love to read. I’m convinced that if you want to write well then you need to be a keen reader too. I have three books on the go at the moment and I read different books at different times of the day. Thus, I leaned that it’s maybe not a good idea to read a Stephen King book just before you go to sleep! At present, my bedroom book is Laurence Bergreen’s ‘As Thousands Cheer’, the biography of Irving Berlin. No monsters. Just Fred Astaire.
Now that you’re back in the West and the West End, do you have any favourite haunts?
Somebody said that you’ve definitely reached middle age when you are offered two things that involve leaving the house – and you always pick the one that gets you home earlier. I’m afraid that about sums me up. On the odd occasion, my friend Andy Baker drags me out to ‘The Rock’ on Hyndland Road, but after a pint of Guinness, you might as well throw a blanket over me and set the alarm for tomorrow.
Edward Kane and Mr Horse – Collected Short Stories: Volume 1’
Available from The Hyndland Bookshop/Amazon/Kindle.
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