Interviews 
with Dan Kavanagh
(excerpted)

Streitfeld, David. "Barnes's Albatross." The Washington Post Book World (22 October 1989): X15. 

"When they started they were a way of burning off excess energy -- a relaxation from the other writing. But I don't know how my energy's going to run for the next few years. In theory, it ought to be easier to write a series of novels with running characters, but often I find it almost more hampering. You think, oh God, does he hold his knife in the right or left hand?" The AIDS crisis also made it a tad more difficult to have a hero who was a carefree bisexual. 

"My favorite story," Barnes says, "is of someone who went into an American crime bookshop and was buying a Dan Kavanagh, and the salesperson said, 'Oh, I understand he writes other books under a pseudonym.' Which seemed a rather nice way around to it." 

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Marchand, Philip. "English novelist re-creates God in his own image." The Toronto Star (17 October 1989): E1. 

"I find it hard to talk about Dan Kavanagh because most of the time I'm me and he only pops up every couple of years for a few months. He comes from a separate part of the brain. 

"Writing Kavanagh novels is a sort of relaxation after two or three years spent writing novels under my own name. I enjoy them very much but I don't re-read them. 
 
 

"Some nasty road accident in north London may be necessary to get rid of Kavanagh. Traditionally the author kills off his characters, but I don't see why an author shouldn't get killed off as well. Crushed by a beer barrel falling off a truck as he leaves a pub, or something. Poor old Dan. 

"He doesn't even do very well, that's the thing about Dan. People assume because he writes thrillers he makes more money than I do. It's not the case at all." 

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Streitfeld, David. "Fancy Dan." The Washington Post Book World (27 December 1987): X15. 

On the phone, Kavanagh confirms that he was "schooled in the university of life. Knocked around a bit. What can I tell you?" A soccer goalie, whose playing made up in aggression what it lacked in finesse. A steer-wrestler. Currently working at odd jobs he declines to specify. He adds that he flew light planes on the Columbian cocaine route. When it's pointed out to him that even his publishers call this a boast, he adds mildly, "Where else would I have gotten the necessary background for Fiddle City?" 

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Kellaway, Kate. "The Grand Fromage Matures." The Observer Review (7 January 1996): 7. 

And how about Barnes's alter ego, the detective writer Dan Kavanagh? Has he dropped out of the race? Barnes laughs: 'Poor old Dan. He is very sick. He hasn't written anything for years. He's jealous of my success.' 

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