21 March 2022
Why would anyone be interested in authors? It's not as if they're a charismatic, or even good-looking, breed. I mean that lovingly. Having spent my life in books, publishing, editing, reviewing, teaching and writing them, I can exclusively reveal that most of the writers I've met are exactly as you'd expect; formerly Indoor Children, socially awkward little weirdos who, with diligence and too much time alone, become thin-skinned pasty show-offs, prone to backache, voracious for praise. If we'd been attractive, confident teenagers, we'd have spent our free time taking drugs and snogging, not fancying Keats and reading Orwell at lunch.
