Max Schaefer

As first novels go, Max Schaefer's 'Children of the Sun' is refreshingly controversial. Most writers would shudder at the prospect of making their central character a committed fascist, especially considering today's political climate and the rise in popularity of Nick Griffin and the BNP.

To make that same character a closeted homosexual reveals a depth of literary ambition that is lacking in a lot of contemporary authors. While he doesn't share their penchant for stylistic punctuation (or lack thereof), Max's style is reminiscent of Brett Easton Ellis and Irvine Welsh, sharing their ability to capture the idiosyncratic language of his characters while tackling subject matter that would leave a foul taste in even the most liberal readers mouth. I can't wait to read his next novel.

Max's passion for research is evident, with skinhead magazine articles and newspaper cuttings spanning three decades pasted in between each chapter of the novel, so it's not a complete surprise when he asks me to meet him at the British Library. While I'm almost certainly positive he isn't, I am still fairly worried that I may have arranged an interview with a fascist sympathiser. After spending five minutes chatting with him, I realise I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Interview by Ed Williams, photos by Matt Piper.

Your first novel, "Children of The Sun", deals with homosexuality and the Fascist movement in Britain spanning four decades. What prompted you to write about this subject matter?

Well, I'd been writing short stories for a while and I think the last thing I wrote before the novel was a novella. It was about Outrage and the queer rights movement in the 90s, so I was getting quite into micro-history, recent history and counter culture. I was having dinner with a friend, and I can't even remember how the subject of Nicky Crane came up, but he mentioned this character whom, as I'm sure you know, was an incredibly violent, incredibly unpleasant fascist skinhead, leading a gay life throughout the same period [of history], so I thought, 'well that's the next short story'. But once I started doing the research there was a tonne of it, so it seemed like if I was going to write a novel, this might as well be it. [laughs]

Nicky was on the album cover of 'Strength Through Oi', wasn't he? [This skinhead punk album, compiled by Gary Bushell, caused uproar in the British press when it was released in May of 1981]

Yeah, he was. I think Bushell claims that he didn't know who he was at the time, but the fact Crane was covered in Nazi tattoos and they airbrushed them out for the cover. . .

And the album's title. . .

. . . yeah. Bushell also claims he didn't know what that was a reference to. [Nazi slogan 'Strength through Joy']

The history of fascism in the UK is still considered a taboo subject. How hard was it securing a publishing deal?

Um. . It was. . It didn't seem to be that hard in the end. Nobody on the agency front had issues with the subject matter, which surprised me. But a lot of people had issues with the style of the book, or simple things like where the plot ran, but once I found someone who was happy with that. . I was quite lucky, I think, to get a publishing deal when I did as it was towards the end of 2008 just when it was getting harder and harder to get published, particularly a first novel, but I was taken on by Granta who don't have the most commercial agenda. So it was basically luck. I think if they hadn't I might have been in a different situation because a lot of the commercial publishers were less keen on the book.