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Kevin MacNeil |
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Kevin MacNeil, author of The Stornaway Way, was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. He is a poet, novelist, lyricist and playwright, and has been the recipient of a number of national and international literary honours and awards. MacNeil has held Writing Residencies in the Scottish Highlands, Uppsala University, Sweden, Edinburgh and Bavaria.
Songwriter and author of The Stornoway Way, Kevin MacNeil gets to grips with our quick-fire questions and yellow toy trucks…
Who or what always puts a smile on your face?
When I’m with my friends and we’re all trying to outdo one another with witty banter, when my cat does anything cute, and all things punny, for example Q: How do you kill off an entire circus? A: You go for the juggler.
What are you reading at the moment?
Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s memoirs. Fantastically well-written. But, boy, writers are curious creatures.
Which author do you most admire?
The living author I admire most is Anne Michaels, whose novel Fugitive Pieces is a work of genius. The reason I admire her so much is she writes with compassion, a flawless artistry and, it seems to me, deep personal integrity. (Though I haven’t met her. She could, I suppose, be a psychopath in real life, though I doubt it).
What’s your earliest memory?
My brother and I are playing with some toys behind the couch. For some reason (why, Francis, why?) he picks up this huge, heavy yellow metal Tonka toy truck and brings it smashing down into my head, thereby introducing me to a world of pain I clearly haven’t forgotten. My head bleeds as though it will never stop. It was The Day My Hair Turned Red. I remember my mother trying to wash the blood out of my hair, the sink coming alive with blood.
I was weak with pain and confusion. This was probably my first encounter with an intuition of my own mortality.
The psychiatrist Adler used to ask all his patients what their first memory was. He would then say to each and every patient, no matter what their story was: ‘And so life is...’
Happily, my brother and I are close and get along very well indeed, partly because he is an incredibly nice person and partly because we are only a day less than a year apart in age. (This means, if you think about it, that he and I are the same age in years for one day of the year.) (I did say you’d have to think about it.)
My other very early memory is of me sitting happily in the back garden. Eating coal.
What is your greatest fear?
I suppose that my greatest fear is that a spaceship comes to earth and the aliens it brings are creatures that with a click of the tentacles can turn air into water, beings that can strangle your heart slowly just by looking at you, cause you to disintegrate molecule by molecule just by saying your name and generally have it within their ability to cause you slow, perhaps even everlasting, pain. That would be none too good. Oh, and they have a huge collection of albums by boy bands, which they insist on playing day and night. God, I hate those f*ckers.
Oh, and for no reason whatsoever I’ve spent the last two years nurturing an unhealthy fear of flying.
How would you like to be remembered?
As the guy who lived till 132 and spent the last 100 years of his life doing good.
Have you ever done something you’ve really regretted?
Ah ha ha ha ha. Something? One thing? Singular? Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
How do you spoil yourself?
I buy lots of books, but that’s a necessity not a luxury. I really don’t spoil myself much; I probably just don’t think I’m worth it. At any rate, I’ve never been materialistic.
What’s your favourite word/book?
The word ‘zen’, despite and because of the fact zen places no value in words. Literature, like zen, aspires towards the unsayable, the thing-in-itself, ‘like catching a feather on a fan’.
Who (or what) do you turn to in a crisis?
My brother (providing there are no yellow trucks nearby) or a wall (in zazen, or zen meditation.)
What makes you angry?
Child abuse, violence, corruption, arrogance, injustice, businesses putting profits before people and people who talk loudly like the rest of the room/train/world is interested in their conversation.
Which foreign country would you most like to visit?
Japan. All offers happily considered. You might have to drug me to get me on the plane.
What’s your worst vice?
Being dishonest when people ask me this question.
What are you proudest of?
Quite proud of having a single released (August 2005) and of making a living from writing, a vocation I love.
Where do you write?
Anywhere. I always carry a notebook, the shower and swimming pool being exceptions.
Which is your favourite city and why?
Edinburgh, Medellin, Rome and Stockholm all house life-enhancing memories.
Which is your favourite place in Scotland?
The Castle Grounds in Stornoway, the West Coast of Lewis/Harris, the Quiraing in Skye and Blackford Hill in Edinburgh all take second place to my writing desk when it’s going well.
Before releasing your single (William Campbell and Kevin MacNeil, ‘Local Man Ruins Everything’) what band names did you consider?
The Endless Indoors, A Fish Called Rwanda, The Pen Is Mightier Than The Swordfish, Mug of Cappuccino, Papa’s Gonna Buy Me A Brand New Plectrum, and so on and so forth. You see why we just kept our own names?
One wish; what would it be?
That we had human(e) politicians.
One curse; what would it be?
I’d curse the man who invented cursing, see how he likes it, eh? Eh? Not so smart now, is he?
