'Sword in the Storm is a special book for me,' says David 
Gemmell at the end of his most successful tour ever. 'There 
are themes within it that I've wanted to explore more fully 
for a long time. It was a hard book to write, and very 
draining at times. I never keep notes, so I had to hold all
the themes in my head, and all the characters and their 
motivations. And the story kept growing. It was not, at 
first, intended to be part of a series. It was to be a 
one-off, like Dark Moon or Morningstar. But the more I 
wrote the  more I realised I couldn't handle the themes 
within a conventional 130,000 word novel.'

With Sword in the Storm, Gemmell's writing has moved on to
a more reflective panoramic sweep-of-history level examining 
the currents that move both individuals and nations forwards.
'I'm not comfortable with this,' he says. 'But I tend to be 
wary of the word 'comfortable'. For the writing to work it 
has to be tackled with passion and heart, and if the author 
gets too comfortable within his or her style the writing can 
become bland. I hope the readers will like Sword in the Storm.
But although I spend a great deal of time and energy focusing
on delivering a good plot and fast-paced action for my 
readers I have to continue to push at the boundaries. There is 
no standing still in this business. You either get better, 
or you go backwards. In order to be the best I can be, I have 
to stretch myself, tackle new areas, explore new themes.' 

And indeed this is turning out to be one of his most popular 
books so far. Signing queues have been longer than ever and his
 talks - witty and entertaining - have been incredibly well 
attended. So .... how does he account for his appeal?  

'I grew up with men of violence. I understand men of violence.
It means that when I write actions scenes and when I have violent
characters, I have a very strong feel for that. When you talk to 
the fans, it's those action scenes that they like and they can 
relate to, because my characters act, within a fantastic 
scenario, like real men of violence. And that's an advantage I
have over almost everybody in the field. 

'And I think West London humour - you know, very sharp, very 
fast - was a good training. I grew up listening to it with some 
very interesting people. I  loved some of their lines. You know,
someone would say something stupid and someone would immediately
come back and say, "Is that your brain or are you breaking it 
in for an idiot?"  

'The fans also read my stuff because the bad guys don't win, and 
the good guys do win, despite the fact that the odds are 
overwhelming. You know, there's too much nowadays, in my view, 
of the idea that you all sit down and say, "Such and such a thing 
is going on and it's terrible" and the first response you get is, 
"Well there's nothing you can do about it, is there?"        
That's the way the government is."  
"Big business? Well, there's nothing you can do about it." 
"Nah, it's the council, there's nothing you can do about it." 

Which is utter b******s. There's always something you can do about 
it and that's what my books are about - people who do something 
about it, and so you read it and I hope you tend to think, 
"Something can be done." I think that's what tends to keep them 
popular.' Gemmell smiles. 'Everything I write is, in a sense,
autobiographical, in that I have always believed in writing about 
what I know.'  

Now a greater maturity is coming out in his work, a greater human
depth. In Sword, the witch, Vorna, has to choose. She can either
have her powers or she can have love and friendship. The two 
sides seem to be mutually exclusive. It reflects Gemmell's view 
of real life. 'We are all required to make sacrifices. Anyone 
who wanted to live a life of total freedom and independence would
need to be utterly selfish. 

'My favourite character in Sword is Ruathain. The man is a well 
of love, and never shirks his duties or responsibilities. He 
marries a woman he knows does not love him, yet raises her child
as his own, constantly helping the boy to achieve his full 
potential. And when that boy becomes a leader, Ruathain follows 
him without any ego loss. But he's not the character I most 
identify with. That's Connavar, keeping the "beast" chained as 
best he can.' 

The "beast" is a compound of less than admirable human 
characteristics including lust and rage. Gemmell is aware that 
acts of individual anger have consequences that change the fate 
of nations. 'Adolf Hitler had a brutish step-father who constantly 
beat and raped his mother, giving her syphilis. This changed his
life, in that when the Allies made Germany suffer after the
First World War Hitler saw the actions as those of 'a great brute
raping Germany.' As a child he had been powerless to help his 
mother. As a man he devoted his life to protecting the Motherland.
Who knows what he might have been had his childhood not been 
transformed by anger and resentment? 

'Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, but then 
so does Good. As to Fate, I think we all have any number of 
potential destinies. What Fate offers us in the end will always
depend more on our flaws than our  strengths. Bill Clinton is a
case in point. His flaw has always been that he gives way 
constantly to sexual desires. Anyone looking back on his career 
in a hundred years time will know that he was destined to fall from
grace.  

'The seeds of destruction for any civilisation in history have
always started to sprout when their society lost touch with 
the spiritual, and yearned for material wealth.' Like Jon 
Shannow, the hero of his Jerusalem Man series, Gemmell quotes 
the Bible. '"You can't serve God and Mammon."'  

Beyond spirituality there are other values which he extols. 
Some have seen violence as one of them since it features so
prominently in his books. Is it the ultimate solution?  

He shakes his head. "I don't think that's true. There are no 
'ultimate' solutions. If a man comes at you with a knife, and 
there is nowhere to hide or run, then you have to fight for 
your life. That's just plain common sense. If an army invades
your homeland you fight to protect what is yours. I see
nothing wrong with that. I don't subscribe to the view that 
violence is always wrong. When a surgeon cuts into a human body
to slice away a cancer he is committing an act of violence on 
that body. Sometimes violence is the only answer. But then I 
have an old-fashioned view on these matters. It sickens
me every time I read that some killer, freed from prison, 
has killed again. Or when a man protecting his home from thieves
is sentenced to seven years because he fired a shotgun at them,
injuring one. In my view killers should hang, and men who 
shoot robbers should receive a medal.' 

It sounds like a return to the legendary Old West. And legends
certainly hold an attraction for him since he has created so many.
In part Echoes of the Great Song, the concurrently released 
paperback of his last novel, is about the distortions between
myth and historical fact. Yet Gemmell is not an escapist. He 
says, 'I would always rather live in the reality. But like most
romantics I believe in the values the legends teach. Love, courage,
redemption and forgiveness are values to be cherished.' 

Looking at him, broad in the shoulder and narrow at the hip 
like his heroic creations, few would have jumped first to the 
adjective 'romantic' to describe him. But it fits. Relaxed, he
radiates warmth and has many friends. Nevertheless he is as 
fiercely self-reliant as any of his favourite author Louis
L'Amour's characters. Having written about the Morrigu, a spirit 
who can grant any wish, he says he wouldn't request a gift from
her.  

'I rarely ask anyone for anything. Another question I'm asked is
whether I'd do the same as Shannow and reject eternal life. The 
answer is absolutely. I have enjoyed my life immensely. I've never
been touched by greed or envy and I wouldn't want to live my life 
again. When the last day comes I'll just thank God for the time 
I've had and drift away. 

'All my books contain the same message, but I don't preach about
it. The message is for those with the "eyes to see and the ears to
hear". If any reader doesn't understand the message no amount of
lecturing from me will bring it home.' 

Sword in the Storm and Echoes of the Great Song, are numbers 1 
and 2 respectively in forbidden Planet's top ten listings. All 
the same, his first book remains his personal favourite. Legend,
written when he was erroneously told he was terminally ill and 
hadn't long to live, is the story of a beleaguered man battling 
on against ferocious odds. 'It was the first published novel, but
it contained all that I wanted to say about life. It is full of 
passion and heart and I'm deeply proud of it. I've always liked
telling stories so when it came to finding that Legend actually 
worked for me, it was like finding yourself. I thought, "This is
it! This is what I was intended to do!" so I've written stories
ever since. I love writing. Love it to pieces. Since I don't 
know my stories -well, that's not exactly true; I have a very,
very bare skeleton of an idea - but I don't really know what's 
going to happen, so I long every day to get to the 
word-processor so I can get my hands on the keys and see what's
going to happen to these characters next.' 

But Sword is special, an evolution in his writing that brings
animation to Gemmell's face when he speaks of it. 'I'm currently
working on the sequel, entitled Midnight Falcon, which should be
in the publisher's hands by the end of November. It's a punishing
deadline. I have 70,000 words to write in seven weeks. It's set
eighteen years later, and it's about Connavar's bastard son. 
After that I'll be writing two Drenai novels, the last Druss 
adventure and possibly Waylander 3.' 

Britain's foremost author of heroic fantasy, Gemmell has 
achieved fame. He has only recently returned from a gruelling 
tour of Australia. He holidays in exotic places like Arizona 
or dazzling islands in the Mediterranean, stays in ritzy hotels.
I say to him, 'You don't have to do the 9-5 daily schlepp and 
the wolf is a long way from your door. You have a life-style 
almost anybody would envy. So what's your next ambition?' 

He says, 'I probably work harder now than I ever did on a 9-5 
schlepp. As to ambitions.... There is an ancient blessing that 
says, 'May all your dreams - but one - come true.' When I was
young I never understood that. Now I do. And I wish I didn't.'