Martin Baker

Martin Baker is a novelist, scriptwriter and editor, and a judge of the Writers' Revolution scriptwriting competition.

He has worked as a broadcaster at LBC, a city reporter for The Times, money correspondent for the Independent, investment editor at the International Herald Tribune and associate editor of Sunday Business.

He read law at Oxford and qualified as a lawyer at a top city firm before pursuing his career as a journalist.

As well as the planned series of Samuel Spend love books, he is also the author of a bitingly satirical critique of the market capitalism, A Fool and His Money.

Interview with author Martin Baker

Five cigarettes for a loaf of bread? After WWII, severe inflation was rife in weakened economies and devaluation made money practically worthless. In some countries the monetary system collapsed completely and people resorted to barter, often using cigarettes as currency.  In the compelling financial tale told by journalist Martin Baker in his debut novel Meltdown,

this scenario is played out in a not too distant future (or if the $7bn French banking catastrophe of Société General’s Jerome Kevel is to be believed, the present) with healthy amounts of sex and murder thrown in for good measure. Frank talks to Martin about swingers clubs, making money sexy and the price of oil…

Who were your contemporaries at Brasenose College who are now famous?

Hugh Grant was at New College, he was part of the Piers Galveston Society; Rowan Atkinson; I see him recycling some of the things he did in his brilliant one man show in the first Mr. Bean. I think he read engineering!  David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, William Hauge, Michael Crick – a lot of politicians are from that generation.  Gill Hornby, sister to Nick Hornby and wife to author Robert Harris, who I greatly admire.

Why do you think so many famous people went to Brasenose?

I think it is a place for the high achieving and talented - it is a self perpetuating place. Did Stall brass fall, jump, or was he pushed?  (In 1948, the Vice Chancellor at Brasenose, WTS Stall brass, a famous lawyer involved with the Nuremberg trials, was killed by a train while changing cars.

Theories are 1. he was very short sighted, 2. he committed suicide because he had doubts about the legality of the Nazi war crimes trials or 3. he was pushed by an aspiring junior don. Today a law library at Brasenose is named after him.  Read more here.)No one knows the answer to that, although there are all kinds of theories. I think he was drunk – he was a notorious drinker. But opinion is sharply divided.

What inspired the story behind Meltdown?

Actually there are two specific answers to that. One is a broader explanation with a spark of fact and is that this is the fictional embodiment of a collection of satirical essays that I published with Orion in the nineties with the point that no one is organized enough in the financial world to be in charge of such a beast.

The other is that although the book did quite well but I would like it to have been much more popular, and the best way to sweeten the pill is to tell a much more profound, emotional tale not constrained by the facts. Tell an exciting story that could be true to a wide audience with lots of suspense and intrigue with little highlights on the factual representation of the financial mechanisms and you have Meltdown.

Just after you published Meltdown, an eerily similar occurrence happened for real, the Socage scandal. Were you surprised?

Absolutely, I was as astonished as anyone else when the story broke, and by the fact it was almost exactly the same as the story in Meltdown! I had people calling me up and asking if I could write a book about them winning the Lotto.

I felt a bit like Emma Thompson’s character in that movie Stranger than Fiction, where her fictional character calls her on the phone. But I think that the actual trigger for it  was that something similar happened at a bank in France while I was there but it was small enough to be hushed up. I think a mini meltdown did occur and that is what prompted me.

How do you think that leaked into your subconscious?

I suspect I got bound up in the historical present and had forgotten about it.

It took you 11 years to write and publish this book, is that because it is so difficult to make the world of finance interesting?

It is suggested that the function of art is to hold a mirror up to society so we can see ourselves, and with publishing as the fictional narrative voice in that society we haven’t done such a good job of explaining what industry affects us all. Everyone owns shares, but many don’t know that they do. If you have a pension fund or have insurance, you have shares. People don’t necessarily realize how dependent they are on the markets.

But there is a prejudice that a book in the world of finance is not interesting. It was about fear and… well fear. The reaction to the suggestion of the book reminded me of Ken Tynan’s assessment of the young, timid and very beautiful Elizabeth Taylor’s attempt to portray Lady Macbeth on the London stage: “It was like giving a debutante a cake fork, and asking her to disembowel a stag.” But this book is an exciting tale with lots of twists and turns and human interest. The financial world is really only a back drop.

How vital to the Meltdown scenario is the role of the media?

Very important. Children love scary stories, and newspapers provide scary stories for adults.  The majority of the audience don’t necessarily understand that the present reporting is all about sentiment, the knock on effects in the housing market, the criminalization and victimization of those involved, the inciting of runs on banks like Northern Rock. 

Are the media as easily manipulated as they appear in the book?

Absolutely, I think they are easily manipulated and there is a definite blurring of the line between PR and journalism, and an erosion of the nobility of the fourth estate. But there are some lawyers who shouldn’t be lawyers. However if I read something in the New York Times it is going to be more reliable than something I would read in the pleasingly disobedient British media, although some of the biggest plagiarism and fabrication scandals have occurred through the Times. 

If the Meltdown scenario was to occur, who would you rather be – Samuel or Khan – and why?

I think I would have to be Samuel, because rightly or wrongly, he does act on principles. Khan is a classic example of the fallen angel - someone who, without even realizing it, has corroded his moral compass. He is so compromised but at the same time well meaning,  he wants to be a father figure to Samuel, and that is one of the stories in the book – Samuel’s journey of emancipation and coming to not need mentors anymore.

If you could rewrite Meltdown now, is there anything you would change?

I would change the price of oil that was so important in the book. It was around $65, and in reality it is over $100 now. But the world hasn’t fallen to pieces. I think I might make it clearer that the book is part of a trilogy – Khan is diminished but not destroyed. The sequel will come out in the UK during November.

Do you re-read the book often?

Not really, because of that temptation to want to change it. You just have to let it go! I could pick it up and gloat like a miser over a jeweler box, but I choose not to.

Did you find it uncomfortable to write the sex scenes, and how did you research the Parisian sex club?

No not at all! They’re quite fun. The sex club is based on a place in Paris which I never went to, but a friend did. He was telling me about it and I kept him on the phone for ages! I knew he’d actually been because he told me initially it was quite low key, but then he got into riveting stuff and described it like the strange garden of earthly delights! 

It is not for me to be pleased with that chapter, but if I was going to pick up and read a passage from the book it would be that one. The sex club industry is huge in Paris, every year they do the equivalent of a Time Out survey to check what the food is like etc. But if Hollywood picks up the book it isn’t going to include the sex bits.