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Issue 58, February 2003
Neil Gaiman about his Duran Duran book
"I spent several months writing a book that I wouldn’t have wanted to read"
So it’s 1984, you’re 22 and you’re asked to write a biography of Duran Duran. It’s not something you’re terribly proud of but as an aspiring journalist it gives you something to do. Fifteen years later you’re an established, serious author and you’re still interviewed about that Duran Duran book. Can you imagine anything worse…?
Neil Gaiman is the author of an impressive body of work, the seminal Sandman series of graphic novels chief among them. But there is more: much more.
Neil: It’s quite possible that in 100 years time, people will say: You know that guy who wrote the book The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish? He did all this other stuff too? And people will say: No.
And the guy who did the biography of Duran Duran.
[Laughs] I can’t see that one ever getting...
But you did do a biography on the group?
Yes, yes. That’s the kind of thing you do when you’re a 22-year-old journalist and somebody offers you money. It was great. Not only did I pay the rent, but that biography bought me an electric typewriter.
When was it?
I think it was written in 1984 and published in 1985. What was funny about that, of course, was the fact that it came out at a point where they were still hugely hot and promptly became an instant little minor bestseller. The first printing sold out in days.
Fun. So you did more than buy an electric typewriter. You bought linoleum as well.
No. I didn’t. Because, what happened then was the publisher, before they could go back for the second printing, was taken into involuntary bankruptcy. Proteus Books. And that was that. And that was a really good thing, actually. I look back on it, because I got the advance. I got my 2000 pounds up front. But I never got any of the royalties I should have gotten and it never went on to make me any money which meant that I sort of got to stop and take stock. And I went: OK, so here am I and I spent several months writing a book that I wouldn’t have wanted to read. I don’t think I’ll ever do that again.
(…) The best thing about the Duran Duran book was, because I own the copyright on it and because the company went bankrupt, later they were actually taken over by somebody else who wrote me a letter saying: We want to bring it back into print. I got to say: No thank you.
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