The Bookmarked interview... with Tony Burke

Author, feature film director and advertising creative Tony Burke discusses filmic disappointments, George Orwell's impact, and how his novel, Hotel Ophelia, is a good thing to come out of a dark time.

Tony Burke is a creative polymath who has worked as a copywriter and art director on advertising campaigns for brands including Cif, Jaguar and Domestos. He has also directed TV commercials and music videos and, only two weeks ago, saw his debut feature film, PROTEIN, released into cinemas across the UK.

In 2023 he published his novel, Hotel Ophelia, which is an intense and unusual story about Royal Warren, a man who feels love for objects rather than people, and who has fallen through the cracks of society. The book is a sometimes dark, occasionally unsettling but always impactful story about people living on the edges of humanity.

Where did the inspiration for Hotel Ophelia come from?

The simple truth was I was having some fairly serious mental health issues of my own. I’d instinctively taken myself away from everything I knew, everything that was familiar, and I checked into a hotel in East London to be alone. To think. To get some perspective. But also to hide. And it was this idea of not wanting to face my reality and not wanting to leave that hotel room that provided that initial barb of the idea. I’m glad something good came out of it because it was a tough time. And, in a way, the book is a meditation on that.

What's the first book you remember loving?

I think there were two. Reading Orwell’s 1984 for GCSE English was a revelation because I loved the book even though I was being made to read it for school. Something I normally rebelled against. And it was 1984 that really inspired me to want to write. And I have written for living all my professional life. So thanks, George. And the next book that cast its spell on me was The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I read it on holiday in Portugal in 1991 and, as a 16-year-old boy, it just fascinated me. 

Which literary character would you most like to be?

I can relate to Santiago in The Alchemist and Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea. The last twenty years of my life have felt like a bit of an odyssey into creativity. I’ve always been doggedly determined not to give up on the dream and kill the optimist inside of me.

"I’ve always been doggedly determined not to give up on the dream and kill the optimist inside of me."

I had a dream as a boy to write a book. Then, when I got out of rehab in 2004, I developed an adjacent dream. That was to write and direct a feature film. I’ve never really thought about money or practicality. I’ve only ever thought about those two things. The film and the book. And I’m really proud of the fact that I made those two things happen. Because it’s so easy to give up.

What's your favourite movie/TV show adapted from a book?

I don’t have a favourite, but I was really disappointed by the film version of High Rise. I like [director] Ben Wheatley, but that didn’t work for me. And [Martin] Amis’s Money, starring Nick Frost; what the absolute fuck? (I know I’ve answered a different question).

Which book do you think should be adapted for the screen that, so far, hasn't been?

Hotel Ophelia. No question.

Where's your favourite place to write? 

I’ve never had a place to write. No study or anything. I wrote the first draft of Hotel Ophelia on a train, two hours a day, every day for four months, during my commute. I then put it down for two years before picking it back up again and rewriting it multiple times. Although I genuinely don’t remember doing it, which is weird.

"I wrote the first draft of Hotel Ophelia on a train, two hours a day, every day for four months, during my commute."

I can write anywhere. In bed. On the sofa. At work. As long as I’ve got my laptop I can dive straight back into the story. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like a den. But it would have to be near a coffee shop.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Describe your perfect writing set-up?

I love the fantasy of going away on my own for a couple of weeks, to the woods or somewhere remote. I seem to write a lot about the descent into some kind of madness or changing psychological state. And I love the idea of a similar descent into solitude and isolation. I don’t get lonely. Never have.

What was the last book you read, and would you recommend it? 

The Beasts They Turned Away, by Ryan Dennis. It’s a deeply thoughtful book, slow and atmospheric, about an elderly Irish farmer looking after a mute child who villagers think is cursed. Worth a go. But give it time.

Which book is next on your reading list? 

Yours.

Plotter or pantser?

 

I’ve thought a lot about this. You hear stories about people like [Philip] Pullman writing His Dark Materials straight out of his head. But I think you need to be both. If you’re going to write something with any literary value you need to know the world of the book and what that says about the world we live in beyond it.

"It’s important to have control of the book. But, it’s equally important to write with absolute freedom."

I think you need to know who your characters are and how they will react in certain situations, and where they’re heading. And it’s important to have control of the book. But, it’s equally important to write with absolute freedom. If you’re just typing up notes it’ll show, because no one likes typing up notes. You need to hurtle off in every direction possible. Try stuff. Be inspired by the process itself.

People talk about 'flow state' in sport. The closest I’ve ever come to flow state is when I’m writing. The most comfortable and in-charge and wise and virile I’ve ever felt is when I’m writing. Lost in it. And you only get to feel like that if you’re prepared to go off the path and into the unknown. You can bin it. Edit the fuck out of it. Go back and change it. But you have to run amok. You have to go feral. I do anyway.

You're starting a book club with four other authors; who would you choose? 

Annie Proulx

Ernest Hemingway

George Orwell

Martin Amis

Don’t know why. What’s a book club?

What book do you think you should have read, but still haven't?

So many. I have so much guilt around the things I haven’t read and the things I’m not reading. When I’m writing something I tend not to read anything, which is really self-sabotaging. I think I’m scared of being rubbish, and if I read something great it will just confirm that. I’ve never ever read anything by Charles Dickens, which is terrible to admit, I know. And I’m deeply ashamed.

Which of your own books are you most proud of? 

Well, I’ve only written two, and one is a kids’ book called The Cats of Cloudesley Square, which I wrote for my children based on a real square near where we used to live, in Islington. But I’m most proud of Hotel Ophelia. I love the craziness of it. I love the raw energy of it. It’s totally inappropriate and in places pretty unreadable. I gave a copy of it to an elderly neighbour of mine who read it and returned it because she didn’t want it in the house. That was a proud moment.

How do you organise your bookshelves? 

Randomly. I used to be more meticulous before I had kids. I also used to read a lot more before I had kids.

If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, which would it be? 

Probably The Old Man and the Sea, but it’s a very hypothetical question. Everything gets boring after a while.

Above: Burke's feature film debut, PROTEIN, is in cinemas now and will be available to stream or download on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from July 14th.

What are you currently working on?

I’m also a screenwriter, and have written lots of screenplays. (My debut feature film, PROTEIN, is in cinemas at the moment). In fact, Hotel Ophelia started life as a screenplay which, during a prolonged period of unemployment in 2018, I decided to turn into a novel.

So, when I have an idea, I automatically think about it as a film first. Although I have been kicking around the idea of first-person stream-of-consciousness about a seagull who grows human hands and attempts to wipe out human civilisation and take over the world. I think that could be really good as a novella.

And I’ve just written a movie called Bunny, which I’m hoping to shoot next year.

You can buy a copy of Hotel Ophelia here.