'Cop out' over climate crisis forced me out of retirement

CRIME writer Peter May was inspired to come out of retirement to write his new thriller after being angered by the failure of world leaders to tackle climate change.

- Jon Coates

The Scottish author, who has sold more than 12 million books, had initially thought he would not write another novel.

He had planned instead to make music at his manor house in south-west France after his last thriller, The Night Gate, was published in January 2021.

But this changed after watching global leaders dodge climate change pledges at Cop 26 in Glasgow. The 71-year-old recalls: I was having great fun and had no intention of writing another book.

“There was nothing in my head and then Cop 26 came along in November 2021.

"I had read a digest of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that had come out in September and it was full of stark warnings about the need to take action now, this decade, otherwise the future was pretty catastrophic looking.

“So I had quite high expectations for Cop 26 and they copped out.

“Even the pretty feeble agreement they had at the end got devalued at the final moment by China and India, who changed the wording of phasing out’ coal to phasing down’, which means nothing.

“I sat in a dazed sense of disbelief. I still had no idea I was going to write a book but I was motivated to read up about the climate crisis. So I spent three months reading dozens of articles and reports.