A place to escape

[John Dean]

Quite a lot of the Facebook groups in which I am involved are debating the way in which books have been helping people through the current restrictions, and the media have increasingly been running articles exploring the topic on the back of research showing a sharp increase in reading.

As a crime writer, I have always wondered how readers view the genre, why it is so popular when, as authors, we spend our days making horrible things happen. If real-life is tough, why enter a fictional world which is equally challenging?

The answer can be summed up in a single word – escapism. Readers know that, gritty as some of the stories may be, they are all fictional. Yes, there may be the proverbial mad axeman out there, but he is not coming for them!

It’s not just crime fiction, of course. Books of all types have always fulfilled an important function, by providing readers with a way to escape into fictional worlds, be it dwarves and dragons, ghosts, romancing couples, madcap professors or made-up detectives.

That’s particularly important at times like these. However tough real life may be (and we are all affected by the coronavirus in so many ways) fiction provides a sense of respite, a break from the difficulties of real life.

Right, I’m off to find that mad axeman…