A way with words

Sharon Griffiths hears how his interest in Van Gogh’s work influenced his latest book.

WRITER Jonathan Tulloch is full of surprises. A rural Cumbrian by birth, his first three novels were set among the doomed housing estates of Gateshead’s Team Valley, with characters who speak in broad Geordie and live on society’s edge with little regard for the law.

His fourth book ventured down the coast a bit, as far as Hartlepool. But now, in his fifth adult novel, Jonathan has suddenly launched himself into three different worlds and eras.

A Winding Road is the story of two paintings, one by Van Gogh and another by a young woman who knew him briefly at the end of his life. The novel embraces the sleek international world of art dealers and high finances – one of the characters, Piers Guest, is a an art advisor to a major bank, which certainly puts art in its 21st Century place.

But it also has a powerful section set in the Second World War where a folklore researcher’s only apparent way to save his disabled daughter is to join the SS.

And finally there is a thread devoted to Van Gogh’s last days in Auvers sur Oise where the artist is portrayed as frankly unappealing, a shambling, grubby, foul-mouthed madman.

It’s all a long way from Gateshead. Or Thirsk, come to that, where Jonathan now lives with his wife, Shirley, and their nine-year-old son.

After studying philosophy and English at York, he spent two years as an actor and then taught English and drama at a comprehensive in Gateshead – hence his apparently effortless skill with Geordie.

“I really enjoyed teaching. It was probably during the last time that teachers were able to teach in their own way. Now there’s too much government interference. They brought in these new ideas to get rid of bad teachers and they just seem to have got rid of the good ones.

In our village alone we’ve got enough ex-teachers to start a school.”

He liked acting. “Acting is great, but there was a case of being the organ grinder, not the monkey. I wanted control over the words.” So instead, he started writing, winning awards – a Betty Trask award, the J B Priestley award – and acclaim.

His first novel, The Season Ticket, came from a short story that won the Bishop Auckland writing competition and went on to become the film Purely Belter, about two Gateshead lads desperate to raise the cash for a Newcastle season ticket. It was raw and funny, but had an underlying darkness that became even more marked in the later books. A Winding Road has a particularly horrific climax.

Tulloch has always been fascinated by stories.

The folklore researcher in the novel is trying to track down the source of stories, where they began, how they change between villages.

“Every culture and country has its own tradition of storytelling that existed long before stories were written down, going back to the time we gathered round camp fires. And I wanted this to be a bit like a folk tale.”

And he laughs at himself. “That sounds so pretentious.”

Though actually, it doesn’t at all. HE has also long been fascinated by Van Gogh. “He was not an easy man. There’s a greet strength behind the paintings and he created so much. You have to admire that. But there is always something odd about prophets that makes them hard to deal with.

“People can’t cope with them. And I didn’t want to smooth that over. Van Gogh used to walk round exposing himself. But he also gave all his clothes away to people who needed them, so when people came to see him he was almost naked. That’s what he was like.

“He also died a pauper. He sold just one painting in his lifetime. And yes I wanted to contrast that with the huge amounts of money that paintings make now.”

A Winding Road includes a successful modern artist who’s planning a swimming poolsized display of human excrement.

Above all, Tulloch wanted a story. The novel is the story of the paintings. “Paintings are prized as possessions for their value, but they have their own lives, their own stories.” And the stories link all these disparate people and times.

Writing is a bit of a family affair for the Tullochs.

Jonathan and Shirley collaborated on a children’s book “I am a cloud, I can blow anywhere”

based on their time in Africa. And Shirley also helps her husband with the novels.

“She is my first editor. We work together.

Shirley also did a lot of the research on the new book. It was she who found the specialist on cleft palate operations, and also found out about the recording equipment that the folklore collectors would have used 70 years ago.

Lots of nitty gritty stuff.”

In between writing – and watching Durham cricket “amazing how many people from Thirsk I see at Durham” – Jonathan is teaching himself to play the mandolin, especially many of the traditional tunes from Shetland whence the Tulloch family long ago came. And his other unlikely writing job is a regular nature column for the Catholic newspaper The Tablet.

“I just love doing it, just a short piece every week. I work on the books every morning until lunchtime and then I generally go for a walk.

I don’t drive so I walk more than most people and there’s always something to see.

“And because I know I have to write something, it makes me look properly and notice things. For instance, as I walked to meet you today I saw a buzzard being mobbed by a flock of crows. Buzzards are just moving into the area.”

He is also a regular at book festivals and events. The actor in him enjoys the performing element of such occasions, especially after the solitude of writing.

“It’s a real laugh. You get to meet lots of people.

I talk about the books. Or I’ll give them a tune. Or tell a few jokes. I like entertaining people.

I don’t like people getting bored.”

In Tulloch’s company, I guess that’s extremely unlikely.

■ A Winding Road by Jonathan Tulloch (Jonathan Cape £17.99)