But You Can Try To Read Books

The Biggest Markets For My Books Outside The Uk Are France And Italy, And Those Are The Two Countries Where I Also Have The Closest Personal Relationships With My Translators - I Don't Know Whether That's A Coincidence, Or If There's Something To Be Learned From It.

Writers Never Feel Comfortable Having Labels Attached To Them, However Accurate They Are.

As I Said, I Had No Publisher For What A Carve Up! While I Was Writing It, So All We Had To Live Off Was My Wife's Money And Little Bits I Was Picking Up For Journalism.

Contemporary Britain Seems An Endlessly Fascinating Place To Me - But If I Knew A Little Bit More About Other Places, And Other Times, Maybe It Wouldn't.

Sometimes I Feel That I Am Destined Always To Be Offstage Whenever The Main Action Occurs. That God Has Made Me The Victim Of Some Cosmic Practical Joke, By Assigning Me Little More Than A Walk-on Part In My Own Life. Or Sometimes I Feel That My Role Is Simply To Be A Spectator To Other People's Stories, And Always To Wander Away At The Most Important Moment, Drifiting Into The Kitchen To Make A Cup Of Tea Just As The Denouement Unfolds.