September 2019/Fairlady 49Word of mouth
It’s been 10 years since
One Day was published, and
five years since Us. Is there
a reason for the five-year
stretch between your novels?
I wish it was shorter! But I’m
a screenwriter as well as a novelist,
and can never quite predict when
the next screenplay will move
forward. Also, I’m very wary of
repeating myself and want every
novel to feel different, to occupy
a different world. Sadly, I have only
so many good ideas.
What inspired you to write a
tragicomedy about a teenager
moving into adulthood?
Getting older, I suppose. I’m in
the middle of middle age now,
and mid-life love stories can
be melancholy things. Instead,
I wanted to write something with
energy and optimism and life, as
well as passion. There’s so much
comedy in first love too – the
self-conscious yearning, the
posturing and posing...
First love is something we can
all relate to. How much of
Charlie’s experience is based
on your own?
Very little, I swear. I did a lot
of student drama and, of course,
I have some experience of being
16, but I try to resist the urge to
lift directly from my own life. It
always leads to trouble.
Charlie’s relationship with his
father is a complicated one.
Why the reversal of roles?
Perhaps there is someone out there
who has a straightforwardly happy
relationship with their father, but
I’ve never met them. The dilemma
of the offspring caring for a parent
is something I’ve not read about
too often – it seemed touching and
painful, but a story that might
have some hope too.
Do you ever regret giving up
your acting career for writing?
No, and neither does anyone who
has ever been to the theatre.Crosswords or sudoku? Or
perhaps even Scrabble?
Scrabble, always Scrabble.Do you prefer to write scripts
or novels? Why?
When writing a script I’m
desperate to return to novels, and
vice versa.Do you find it difficult to
adapt your own work for
the screen, as you did with
One Day?
Yes, it’s agony, like pulling your
own tooth. But it’s so hard to
watch someone else do it instead.You wrote Starter for 10.
Are you a fan of the TV show
University Challenge?
Not so much a fan, but fascinated
and bemused by it. When I was a
kid I had no understanding of what
a university was, or what students
did there. They seemed like an
alien race to me. Sadly, writing
the book ruined the show for me,
and made it all too familiar. I can’t
watch now.Do you cook?
I do, every day, and (whispers) I’m
quite good at it.When do you write best?
Between 8am and 1pm. After that
I might as well just give up and go
to the movies. Yet still I try.How well do you sleep at
night?
Disastrously. I fall asleep like
a stone then wake up at 2am and
that’s it for the next three to four
hours. I’ve tried everything. It’s
a real dilemma.Did becoming a father change
the way you wrote?
It made me more disciplined
and productive, out of necessity
really. The notion that the pram
in the hallway is an enemy – that’s
nonsense.Can you turn your brain off?
I relaxed once, in about 1997.
I didn’t like it and haven’t done
it since.Who are your three favourite
writers at the moment?
Elizabeth Strout, Penelope
Fitzgerald, Helen Garner.Dogs or cats?
I own cats and often think how
much I’d like a dog (see writing
novels vs screenwriting, above
left).Do book awards matter?
As a way of getting people talking
about fiction, as a catalyst for
discussion, yes. But as with all
awards, the results should be taken
with a pinch of salt.Would you have anything to
say to your 16-year-old self?
Stop picking.Do you like camping?
I love hiking and am never
happier than walking through the
wilderness, miles from anywhere.
But at the end of the journey, I like
to find myself at a nice hotel.What’s the best writing advice
you’ve ever been given?
‘Decide on the response you want
from the reader, then do everything
you possibly can to achieve it.’Turn the page for an
extract from Sweet Sorrow.