Interview with Waterstones

This is the publicity shot I've used for my first interview about Queer Fish in God's Waiting Room. A journalist from the Waterstones' website sent me these questions to answer.

What was your favourite childhood book?

If I had one, I can’t remember what it was. I enjoyed writing as a child but I didn’t become an enthusiastic reader until I discovered the Dune books and the novels of Richard Brautigan in my teens.

Which book has made you laugh?

I once cried with laughter on a beach in Cuba reading Don Quixote drunk on mojitos.

Which book has made you cry?

I’ve read books that have upset me – like The Gate by Francois Bizot or Is This a Man by Primo Levi – but I’ve yet to read a book that has made my cry.

Which book would you never have on your bookshelf?

There are plenty of books I’d never buy – novels that don’t match my tastes, say, or political books that don’t reflect my point of view – but there’s no book I’d never read.

Which book are you reading at the moment?

Jesting Pilate by Aldous Huxley.

Which book would you give to a friend as a present?

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Which other writers do you admire?

Charles Dickens for writing his first 5 novels before he was 30, Friedrich Engels for writing The Condition of the Working Class in England, Robert Tressell for writing The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, and George Orwell for his essays.

Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it?

I try and read a classic a year. In 2008 it’ll either be The Satanic Verses or Anna Karenina.

What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?

I wish I had the memory to answer that question properly. Instead, here’s a list of five books I’ve read recently and enjoyed.

Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch by Henry Miller
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
One People by Guy Kennaway
Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer

Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer?

When I first met an author socially it was like a bomb hitting its target. It wasn’t what he’d written that inspired me, nor what he had to say about writing, it was simply the thought that if he could do it, why couldn’t I.

What is your favourite time of day to write?

It’s always a good time to write.

And favourite place?

Hot beaches are particularly good for me, but anywhere quiet will do.

Longhand or word processor?

Longhand, every time.

Which fictional character would you most like to have met?

Harry Paget Flashman

Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?

Writing isn’t like football or tennis, we don’t have a governing body measuring descriptions of war or turns of phrase.

Which book have you found yourself unable to finish?

I’ve read novels that have bored me from beginning to end, but I’d never think of abandoning one half-way through. I’ll walk out of a film, turn the TV over, or stop an album, but I’ll always finish a book I’ve started.

What is your favourite word?

I like to write with words that everybody uses, so I stalk new phrases instead. Today, for example, I discovered the phrase ‘take owls to Athens’, which has the same meaning as the phrase ‘take coals to Newcastle’.

Other than writing, what other jobs or professions have you undertaken or considered?

Public relations and advertising.

What was the first piece you ever had in print?

A weekly music column in The Macclesfield Express.

What are you working on at the moment?

A novel called The Uncertainty of Friendship.