On Friday 1 November, we had the pleasure of welcoming T. M. Payne, a successful Wirral-based author who writes thrillers set in Liverpool (Long Time Dead, This Ends Now), and her wife and co-author Susie Doherty, into our fourth-year German interpreting class. M. Payne’s 2024 debut novel, Long Time Dead, had been recently translated into German with the title Schon lange tot. Our lecturer, Hanna Magedera, thought this would be the perfect opportunity to invite her into our class.
Real live interpreting
We, the final year students of German, met in the Newton Interpreting Suite, where our German class was divided into two. Around the table in the main room sat students and staff conference-style, chaired by Teresa, who would ask T. M. Payne questions in German about her novel, such as how she decides names for her characters (she joked that the characters who she kills off are named after people she doesn’t like), and how her wife helps her with her ideas.
As neither T.M. Payne nor Susie actually speak a word of German, these questions were then interpreted into English by the pairs of students sitting in the interpreting booths, which T. M. Payne and Susie could hear over headphones. The author would then reply in English, which was spontaneously interpreted into German by the students.
Keep your nerves
Whilst the idea of having to quickly translate T M Payne’s answers appeared a bit intimidating (I was in one of the booths!), we soon realized it was a lot of fun, and it became clear that the goal was to summarize key information and ideas from what she was saying, rather than having to translate every word.
Thrown into the river
M. Payne was a very entertaining guest, as she drew us in with her stories and experiences of working as a Police Case Investigator, her career before becoming an author. Her best story was when she explained how she once chased a man to a camping site and was then thrown into a river.
In the force
Her experiences in the police force helped her write her novel, and after having finished reading her book in one weekend, I can definitely recommend picking up a copy. Without wanting to give away too many spoilers, the story is centered around a cold case which gets uncovered again, with many plot twists and interesting characters, who are all unexpectedly connected.
Happy birthday
As it also happened to be the author’s birthday, we sang “Zum Geburtstag viel Glück” in German to her (no interpretation needed there) and handed her and Susie a tote bag and pen from the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures. However, we were gifted much more, as we all also very generously received free copies of her novel in both German and English as well as bookmarks as little keepsakes.
Thanks and further information
Many thanks to T. M. Payne and Susie for coming in! Also, thanks to JR, our tech support, who helped us with any technical issues.
This Ends Now, German translation: Schon Immer Tot is out 12 November 2024. Long Time Dead was an Amazon number one bestseller in the UK and Germany in crime fiction, and This Ends Now was a number one bestseller on Amazon in the UK and Australia in crime fiction and women sleuths.
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