Writers Revealed

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'What am I doing,' pondered Brian Moore during his interview fór the BBC rádió series Writers Revealed, 'a grown mán, sitting at a desk writing stories?' It was a question addressed direcüy or indirectly in each of the conversations that journalist and broadcaster Rosemary Hartill held with eight of the foremost British authors writing today. In the series she explored why these mén and women suffer from 'the incurable disease of writing', and discovered how their personal beliefs influence what they write about. Her probing questions elicited responses as varied as the individuals themselves and are recorded in this book nőt just as a fascinating insight intő the Creative processes of a novelist's mind bút alsó as an invitation to the reader to share in the doubts, perplexities, convictions and joys that these acclaimed writers experience and examine in their work. The interviews took Rosemary Hartill from the sitting-room of contented, though extremely unconventional Christian,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

'What am I doing,' pondered Brian Moore during his interview fór the BBC rádió series Writers Revealed, 'a grown mán, sitting at a desk writing stories?' It was a question addressed direcüy or indirectly in each of the conversations that journalist and broadcaster Rosemary Hartill held with eight of the foremost British authors writing today. In the series she explored why these mén and women suffer from 'the incurable disease of writing', and discovered how their personal beliefs influence what they write about. Her probing questions elicited responses as varied as the individuals themselves and are recorded in this book nőt just as a fascinating insight intő the Creative processes of a novelist's mind bút alsó as an invitation to the reader to share in the doubts, perplexities, convictions and joys that these acclaimed writers experience and examine in their work. The interviews took Rosemary Hartill from the sitting-room of contented, though extremely unconventional Christian, Iris Murdoch to the country garden of puzzléd agnostic John Mortimer; from 'young fogey' A.N. Wilson's Oxford home to the rambling East London vicarage of socialist and feminist Sara Maitland. She explored the coarser side of Catholic culture with Anthony Burgess, the 'God-bothering' moments that irritate Jewish author Bernice Rubens, the personal devil dangling illusions in front of Piers Paul Read, and the envy Brian Moore feels fór those who have 'the gift of faith' - a gift he does nőt share. We learn of the intricate and detailed planning that goes intő a Murdoch növel before she writes a word and, contrastingly, of the sentence-by-sentence growth of Bernice Rubens' books; of the single page outline with which Piers Paul Read begins and the 40 or 50 rewrites to which Brian Moore subjects his opening pages. Bút whether they prefer to plán out their novels or to 'wait and see', each author is clear that to write is, fór them, essential. Their lively and absorbing self-examinations published here will send you hurrying to their novels to explore further the themes, questions and arguments they raise. Vissza