Crime writer John Baker's novels include Poet in the Gutter (1995); Death Minus Zero (1996); King of the Streets (1998); Walking with Ghosts (1999); The Chinese Girl (2000); Shooting in the Dark (2001); The Meanest Flood (2003) and White Skin Man (2004). In addition to writing crime and mystery novels, Baker is a book reviewer for Shots magazine and the Tangled Web. He is also a member of the Murder Squad, a collective of crime writers who use workshops, panels, readings, and lectures to promote the genre.

In a recent interview, John Baker spoke about his writing and his concerns as a writer.

What drives the action in your novel White Skin Man?

White Skin Man is a political novel about racism, those who suffer it, those who perpetrate it, and those who stand and watch. The novel pits ex-con Stone Lewis and his friends against an intelligent and ruthless white supremacist and a gang of dangerous skinhead no-hopers.

The research for White Skin Man was different to the usual research before I begin to write a novel. The theme was to do with displacement and was especially concerned with asylum seekers. So I contacted the Asylum Seekers’ Support Group in Hull. As a result of this I was introduced to several people who were waiting for the government to decide on their cases. I was invited into the hostels in which they lived and many had stories to tell. So many stories that there was no room for all of them in this novel.

The popular view, in the United Kingdom, is that asylum seekers are scroungers who come to the U.K. to take advantage of the welfare benefits system. How accurate is this?

In my experience it is not accurate at all. Of course, there are cheats and scoundrels in all walks of life and I'm sure they exist among asylum seekers as they exist among republicans and church folk and any other group you care to mention. But generally people seek political asylum because their lives are in danger in their countries of origin.

Governments of all political persuasions in the U.K. and elsewhere have used their abuse of asylum seekers to 'prove' that they can be tough on a perceived threat. A mere glance at history is enough to show us that.

When you were writing White Skin Man, what did you find most difficult? What did you enjoy most?

Although White Skin Man remains a crime novel, it has an additional dimension and the writing of it brought me into contact with many people on the run from oppression and poverty. Unfortunately, for many of them, their flight had only brought them into contact with more misunderstanding, more prejudice and poverty, and more violence. I needed to show the reality of this without preaching. The most enjoyable part of writing any novel, for me, is the creation of characters. This novel was not an exception.