Newcastle University

When do you read?

Well, now I’m retired, although I’m quite busy, there’s not a particular … in the evenings, I don’t watch TV. I read in the evenings, mainly, yes. But, well, it’s not as disciplined as it ought to be – I sort of promised myself I would read all the English classics, this is three years ago when I retired, but I’ve not been disciplined … or read Dostoevsky. But, I dunno, I should, but it’s a bit like the cow, you graze a bit here, and then you graze a bit there. It’s not, because I didn’t, sounds awful, I didn’t go to a good school Back in the ancient times when I went to school […] if you didn’t pass the eleven plus you didn’t go to grammar school, which gave you a more academic education. Anyway, I didn’t, so I went to a tech school, although I was anything but technical. So, I mean I always read, but I didn’t have […] Obviously we were taught English, and you read your one Shakespeare, and your one Bernard-Shaw, and one H.G. Wells, and they were super, but I always wished somebody had been able to sort of guide me, and say ‘right, you’ve read that, now you should read this’ […]. So I’ve just stumbled around blindly, I suppose until I went to university and it was laid down, more or less, that year one you read medieval French, year two you read renaissance French, and it was more, it was structured. Of course, you know, I should have done it myself, but there was nobody really, certainly my parents weren’t available to guide me, so I’ve stumbled around and come across some fantastic gems and no doubt missed, in English classic literature I imagine, lots and lots of wonderful things. I don’t know enough Shakespeare, I don’t know enough Dickens, you know, but there’s still time, anyway.

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The authors I like are those who seem to be a part of that part of the country in which they are. They seem to have an affinity […] some writers seem to have this, Mauriac being an example – he’s steeped in the atmosphere of the South West of France, the Bordeaux […] area. […] As a tourist, you don’t see anything, you don’t, and I think, you know, well why don’t I go and spend a holiday, and my wife’s off to Sicily, but I don’t want to because it’s frustrating – you’re just scratching the surface, you don’t get underneath. Now, unless you’re going to work in a country, it’s almost impossible to do that, so the only way, of course, is you open a book, and you’re straight into somebody’s living room, straight into their garden, their bedroom or whatever. And some authors have this obvious love of their … I suppose Priestley, perhaps […] I think perhaps his relationship with Bradford where he was born, there must be some very affectionate writing, I suppose, and I find that very attractive. These people who just seem to … the French have an expression ‘dans leur peau – in their skin’, they just feel at ease, comfortable in the environment in which usually they were born and brought up. They’re part of it.