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James Watson |
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Darwen, Lancashire; 8 November 1936
FAVOURITE BOOK:
Sorry, they'd kill me if I singled one out
MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
That's a secret (but burglars wouldn't be interested)
FAVOURITE SONG:
'Singin' in the Rain' (so long as I can dance with a decent umbrella)
FAVOURITE FILM:
The next one
When did you start writing?
I began writing about things that interested me - history, ancient civilizations; and in ways I
appreciated as a reader - aiming for vividness, pace, excitement. Then I turned to matters that caused me concern, that addressed my commitment to a just society. Though I write these days about the present, the past is not put aside, for to ignore it is to handicap our ability to understand the present.
In the age-old conflict between those who would possess the world, and those who would
share it, my partiality is for the sharers. I hope readers will share with me concern and
compassion for those who find themselves - as all my characters seem to do - in the eye of
the storm.
Most of all, my wish is that readers share my enthusiasm for a good tale, the kind folks told
each other around winter fires long ago.
Where do you get your ideas?
Where the jackdaw does, from all over the place - incidents, impressions, characters, pieces of conversation. These lie in the nest, sometimes dull, sometimes sparkling. Then from somewhere, from out there in the world, a theme takes hold (human rights provides most of these) and the pieces begin to assemble. Things start moving, almost of their own accord. Where is it all coming from, and where is it going? Ask the pen!
Can you give your top three tips to becoming a successful author?
1. If you're reading this, you're not writing. So get down to it now.
2. Tolstoy wrote six drafts of his novel Resurrection: even in the end he did not get it right, but it's the staying-power which counts.
3. Writing is like exercise; if you don't do some every day, you become flabby (and worse - lazy).
Favourite memory?
Receiving the Buxtehuder Prize for youth fiction in a packed school hall in Buxtehude in Germany, and suddenly discovering that everyone understood my English! (Well, at least they applauded my acceptance speech.)
Favourite place in the world and why?
On an old Roman road above the Amber Valley in Derbyshire, with a sharp wind whistling in the trees. It's where everyday 'busyness' vanishes and leaves me a few clear thoughts and a feeling of being somewhere I belong.
What are your hobbies?
Visiting places of wonder, like cathedrals and castles, of romance, like ancient ruins; but then I am also a film buff, rarely miss Sports Report on the BBC; and for decades I've worked to improve my recorder playing. Not the least, swimming five or six days a week.
If you hadn't been a writer, what do you think you would have been?
Outside-left for Blackburn Rovers and England, and England opening bat with Geoffrey
Boycott, the only boy from our street to do the double: you see what a mighty sacrifice I
made to write books?
