by Mat Osman is an original and current member of the band Suede, along with Brett Anderson, and the author of two novels. The Ruins, published in 2020, a modern murder mystery about alien brothers. Most recently, Ghost Theatre, is set in Elizabethan London and tells the story of the Blackfriars Boys, an Elizabethan-era theater troupe made up of children who were often plucked from the streets to act in popular plays of the day. They are accompanied by Shay, a young female “Aviscultan”; the worship of the birds with which she shares as she scales the roofs of the city while escaping from her enemies. The book is widely praised and the Guardian was selected as one of his novels in 2023. Osman is the older brother of television presenter and fellow novelist Richard Osman and lives in north-west London.
Not the kind of book you’d imagine a musician would write…
I hope that is true. My first novel was about a musician, about brothers and stuff and it took off [my] experience. [With The Ghost Theatre] I knew I wanted to write something without a safety net, where I had to make it up. Because I want to be a writer, not a musician who has written a book.
Where did the idea come from?
I came across a story about a child kidnapped for the stage in 1601. All kinds of children were stolen from the street to perform. Everyone in London went to the theatre, yes the entertainment and these kids were extremely famous, performing for the Queen. But at the same time they were essentially property. They were bought and sold and shipped out. I just wanted to know what that would feel like. That’s how it started. But about halfway through, it turned into an adventure story, a sort of historical romp, which I didn’t really intend to write.
Where did Seay and her bird worshiping community come from?
Oh, as many things do, chat on a tour bus. Talking about the religions that worshiped animals: cats, bulls of that kind. It does not seem that there was one who worshiped birds. It seemed strange to me, because they seem to be very worshipful. You know, they live in the heavens, they are ineffable. They are beautiful and cruel. And we don’t really understand them. I mean, they make perfect gods.
I was the posh one in Suede – my mother was a teacher
The book is a love letter to London. You were was raised in Haywards Heath – what was your first experience of the city?
It was the first time I came to London with a friend and his father to see Simple Minds. It must have been at Hammersmith [Odeon] as I remember coming over Hammersmith Bridge. I was in love with London before I ever got here to be honest. I mean, I wore nothing [to do with it]. The Sex Pistols, the Jam – I already had a London type of music in my head. I have lived here for 35 years now and I still love it. But I wanted to write about real London, dirty, dangerous, working-class London. You know, I was the posh one in Suede, because my mother was a teacher. When we started here nobody had any money, not one band that I knew… it was a kind of working class exploitation, and an ordinary person in pursuit. And that doesn’t exist anymore. It really doesn’t.
Can you recommend other books by musicians?
There is a man named John Darnielle. An extremely talented man fronting an American band called The Mountain Goats, who are excellent. He has written a few books, Wolf in White White and Universal Harvesterboth are great. Universal Harvester – if anyone reading is from Netflix or Amazon – it’s like a brilliant adult Stranger Things and should be made into a movie or TV show immediately.
Which authors do you always return to?
Michael Chabon, as well as Michel Faber and Iain Banks, who told me that I could be a writer because, stylistically, nothing is missing. I love writers who push the boundaries, whose ideas are too big for one genre. It’s one of the things that frustrates me about publishing – these little boxes that you put yourself in. I didn’t want to Ghost Theatre to be [classed as] historical fiction. It’s just a fiction that takes place in that time.
What about your next book?
A tech billionaire and his team were trapped in a bunker after the apocalypse. For the past six months I have been scared myself, looking at these underground tanks that are being built by everyone involved in our future.
Your brother Richard is toofamous, author. Which one is your favorite Murder Club Thursday books?
The last one [The Last Devil to Die]. I mean, I like them all. It’s not the kind of thing I’d normally read but the minute I read the first sentence of the first one – he sent it to me six months before it was published – it was just like: ‘Okay, he knows what’s up. he is doing. ‘ But the last one I thought was really nice. Dementia was described and dealt with brilliantly. Very sad but not sentimental – it’s a hard thing to do.
He has said that your books are dark with a touch of mainstream and vice versa. Do you agree?
Yes, absolutely. It is always on the way. When we were growing up he was into Saturday night TV and golf and snooker – he’s always loved the mainstream. It is not affection. It has a mainstream taste, but I was always kind of obsessed with anything that was cool. That’s why most people form a band. Not for the reasons that are really important to me now – that sense of community, connecting with people. It was like, you know, I wasn’t very cool and I wanted to be.
Why are the Ottomans doing so well?
I really have no idea. From time to time we both wonder about it because I think if you met us around 15, you’d think, well… good luck to those two!
• Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman is published in paperback by Bloomsbury (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
