getting to know the characters

No Way To Live is a Christmas thriller, set across a week in December, just as shops, cafes and radio stations start ramping up the Christmas music. One way I decided to get to know the main characters was to create a Christmas playlist for each of them.

See what you can make of their personalities from their ten top Christmas songs.

I’ve included the video of each character’s Number 1 song.

Katie

1. Christmas Lights, Coldplay
2. All I Want for Christmas is You, Maria Carey
3. Last Christmas, Lauren Spencer Smith
4. Stay, East 17
5. Shake Up Christmas 2011, Natasha Bedingfield
6. Fairytale of New York, The Pogues & Kirsty McCall
7. Cheer for the Elves, Gwen Stefani
8. Merry Xmas, Everybody, Slade
9. Underneath the Tree, Kelly Clarkson
10. Hang Your Lights, Jamie Callum

Tom

1. Christmas Wrapping, The Waitresses
2. Stop The Cavalry, Jona Lewie
3. Fairytale of New York, The Pogues & Kirsty McCall
4. White Wine in the Sun, Tim Minchin
5. How To Make Gravy, Paul Kelly
6. Xmas in the 80s, Scouting for Girls
7. Sleigh Ride, The Late Greats
8. Driving Home for Christmas, Chris Rea
9. Donna and Blitzen, Badly Drawn Boy
10. Just Like Christmas, Low

Billie

1. My December, Linkin Park
2. North Star, Elephant
3. Oi To The World, No Doubt
4. Oh Holy Night, Hey Monday
5. All Alone On Christmas, Darlene Love
6. All I Want For Christmas 2005, My Chemical Romance
7. Walking In The Air, McFly
8. Christmas Canon Rock, Trans-Siberian Orchestra
9. Ava Maria, Chris Cornell
10. Santa God, Pearl Jam

Answers

Katie

Katie loves Christmas, the build-up, the shopping and especially the music, so her playlist would be too long for this blog post unless I’d kept it to a strict top ten. Christmas Lights and All I Want For Christmas are not just her two favourite Christmas songs, they’re two of her all time favourite songs. Katie wants everyone to have a good time. She tries to lift the mood even when things get dark. Her playlist is pure celebration, the soundtrack of someone who needs Christmas magic to believe things will be okay.

Tom

Although he’s loath to admit it, Tom is something of a romantic, and he does like Christmas songs, which makes the first choice on his playlist – Christmas Wrapping – an absolute shoe-in. Tom’s playlist belongs to someone who listens to music when no one’s around, letting memories wash over him. It’s muted, human, a little bruised, and full of longing—just like Tom himself.

Billie

Billie’s musical tastes run differently from Katie’s and Tom’s. She’s more of a rocker, preferring music with an impact. In general, she drowns out emotion with noise. Her two top choices – My December and North Star – are softer, bleaker, really, than all the other songs on any of the playlists. Billie’s playlist tells the story of someone who’s built armour out of distortion and drums, but still carries a fragile, hopeful light somewhere underneath.

LINKS

No Way To Live on Amazon

Blog post: How my Christmas thriller was born in a flat in Riyadh

Blog Post: How Angel of the South was born