In 1990 the English science writer John Gribbin had just finished the manuscript of “Hothouse Earth”. He… well, I am spoiling the interview he kindly gave about his wonderful “Sherlock Holmes confronts climate change” short story, The Carbon Papers.
[Credit: The Carbon Papers originally published in Analog, January 1990, now available in my collection Don’t Look Back, Elsewhen Press, 2017. Copyright John Gribbin]
Interview
- Tell us about your many books on the atmosphere and weather from the 1970s on, and especially Hothouse Earth.
In the 1980s, I was working as a freelance science writer, mostly for New Scientist, and writing books about climate change, culminating in Hothouse Earth: The Greenhouse Effect and Gaia (1990). I then drifted away from the field, as it was clear that the scientific evidence for anthropogenic global warming had been established.
2. How far back do you and Sherlock Holmes go?
I had been introduced to Sherlock Holmes by my then girlfriend (now wife) when I was about 17. She was and still is an avid fan, who had had a letter published in a Sherlockian fan magazine when she was 10. So by the 1980s I had read every story.
3. When/how did the idea for “the Carbon Papers” come to you
I was looking for some light relief after a bout of intense work finishing Hothouse Earth, and in those days light relief usually meant writing science fiction. I was wondering what to write about, and my wife challenged me, along the lines of “I bet you can’t write a Sherlock Holmes story about the greenhouse effect and get it published.”
4. Any recollections on whether it was it easy or difficult to write (in my opinion you capture Doyle’s style very well)?
The story was quite easy to write once I had come up with the basic idea. I was then (less so now) very familiar with the Holmes canon, so it was straightforward to introduce the plot twist, Mycroft, and the cormorant. Getting the right “voice” just involved re-reading a couple of stories to get the flow of Conan Doyle in my head. I am quite good at pastiche. Whether or not that is a good thing I leave for others to judge.
5. Do you recall any particular reception/responses?
I don’t recall any particular response, the usual polite nod from my Sf friends. Certainly nobody took it seriously as a message about global warming, which was a bit disappointing. My wife thought (and thinks) it was a bit of fun! I think she was more impressed by it than by my books.
6. Have you re-read it since? If so, what do you think of it now?
I re-read it while proof-reading my collection, Don’t Look Back, and was/am rather pleased with it. It is unfortunately still topical!
7. How can people keep in touch with your writing?
I have a blog at WordPress (johngribbinscience) which is rather neglected, and my books can always be found on Amazon and similar sites.
8. Anything else you want to say?
In case anyone is wondering if I am the same person who wrote In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat and Science: A History, the answer is yes! I am proud of having published more than a hundred non-fiction books, but even more proud of having published ten science fiction books.