After a childhood in America, Canada and the UK, Jonathan Miles took a first from University College, London and his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. He has written, lectured and broadcast on cultural history all over the world. His books on Eric Gill and David Jones have met with critical acclaim, earning such press accolades as 'magisterial', 'authoritative', 'massively researched', 'compelling', and 'incisive'. He lives in Paris with his wife and daughter.

Mark Thwaite: What gave you the idea for Medusa? Was it the shipwreck, the scandal, or having seen Gericault's masterpiece itself!?

Jonathan Miles: It was not long after 9/11 -- just before the Iraq invasion -- and I happened to be looking at the Raft of the Medusa in the Louvre. I knew the image had something to do with government incompetence -- it struck me that the Medusa story might have echoes for our time, with the West being steered towards disaster by leaders who didn’t seem to understand what they were doing. So, I started to look into it.

MT: How long did it take you to write and research your book?

JM: Just under two years.

MT: Do you enjoy the research or were you impatient to get down to the actual writing?

JM: Research is always fascinating and sections begin to write themselves while the investigative process is going on.

MT: How do you write? Longhand or directly onto a computer, straight off or with lots and lots of editing?

JM: When I write narrative non-fiction I certainly use the Mac. The ease of moving text, and the convenience of endnote links, copy-paste etc. are all very useful and time saving.

MT: When the Medusa ran aground the evacuation of the frigate was "chaotic and cowardly". Why so? Ships were often running aground in the early 19th Century why was this evacuation handled so badly and why did the events subsequently cause such a controversy?

JM: The ineptitude, arrogance and cowardice of the captain was incredible. He had not been to sea for 25 years. His was a politcal appointment -- he was a Royalist being rewarded for his fidelity to the crown in exile during the French Revolution. By contrast, many of the passengers and most of his officers were Republicans -- by the time of the wreck, they’d already all but mutinied. The Captain and future Governor of Senegal were intent on saving themselves and the ensuing horrors caused by their selfish abandoning of nearly 150 people on a provisionless and rudderless raft not only scandalized Europe but nearly toppled the newly restored French Monarchy.

MT: Would we have forgotten about the Medusa if it wasn't for Theodore Gericault?

Quite possibly. The book produced by two feisty survivors on the raft – men who’d been forced to feed off their dead companions in order to survive - had swift and pan-European success but it would have probably eventually disappeared to the vaults of national libraries. The French Navy is still – incredibly – in denial about the catastrophe. Gericault provided an iconic image and one that is repeatedly exploited by political cartoonists. As soon as a government is in trouble (are you out there, Steve Bell?) it finds itself on the Raft of the Medusa. I think the image was most recently used by The New Yorker during the New Orleans tragedy.

MT: Do you read the critics? Have you been pleased with the responses to your book?

JM: I was thrilled by the extent of the coverage and the warmth and enthusiasm of the critics on both sides of the Atlantic. I loved the way they got the ‘ripping yarn’, ‘page-turner’ aspect of the book and the ‘novelists eye for detail that keeps the narrative building’ -- that was great.

MT: Have you learned anything from them?

JM: It is always interesting to note how different people react to different elements. Michael Prodger who has been enormously enthusiastic about the book would have liked to have seen more on Gericault ‘the highly disturbed man’ -- which I would have loved to have explored further but perhaps that might have slowed the shipwreck/political scandal thrust of the story.

MT: What do you do when you are not writing?

JM: I love to cook on a daily basis. Relaxes me. Also love to travel. Last year we got one of those fabulous round the world tickets and went to places we wouldn’t ordinarily get to: Argentina, Peru, Easter Island, Tibet, Japan, Finland. Fabulous fun made much easier with ibooks and ipods and all things digital -- school emailed work and tests to my daughter whom we were teaching on the road.

MT: Did you have an idea in your mind of your "ideal" reader? Did you write specifically for them?

JM: I would like readers who take time as they read, who enjoy words on the page. The medium is part of the message. Someone who reads too quickly stands to miss much of what a writer has tried to put on the page. I find it satisfying when I see a film for the nth time and realize that some apparently useless bit of throwaway dialogue actually sets something up which becomes important much later in the story.

MT: What are you working on now?

JM: I’m doing a book on a hugely seductive and fascinating Russian agent. A highly visible spy -- with a cast of characters that adds up to a Who’s-Who of avant-garde European letters, Hollywood celebrities, notorious spies and double agents.

MT: Who is your favourite writer? What is/are your favourite book(s)?

JM: Very hard to say. John Dos Passos would be a possible choice. His great talent was to combine the excitement of innovative language with a more popular idiom. Manhattan Transfer and U.S.A. are both fabulous books -- among the great novels of the early C20.

MT: Do you have any tips for the aspiring writer!?

JM: There’s no substitute for being on the job. Write write write.

MT: Anything else you would like to say?

JM: This sounds like shameless fawning and flattery but I was so happy to do this for you as I’ve repeatedly found The Book Depository to be the speediest and best among the many good Amazon sellers. Bravo.