Anyone reading Straw Man will think its author must be a former spy. But I don’t think you are – not that you’d tell me if you had been? No, because then, sadly, I’d have to shoot you. How did you go about doing your research for the book? I delved into the explosion…
Was it always literature? What was it that led you into writing? I think it would be stretching it a bit to call it Literature. As soon as I could read I just consumed anything and everything, starting with the contents of the bookcase in the dining room read end to end; mostly Readers Digest…
A straightforward question first. When did you decide writing was something you wanted to do? All my life and then, twenty years ago, realising that i was reaching middle age with no novel to show for it, I began writing. Did you consider practising any other art forms? Having made many programmes including drama, I…
The main thing I’d say about you as a writer is you’re quite incredibly productive. Books, poems, stories, essays, seem to flow from you more or less all day long. Has it always come easy? The first thing to say is that I write too much, which means, from a different angle of approach, that…
You are obviously hugely passionate about boxing. How did you first become involved? “I was always around East London growing up but I never felt I had a base, a home, as I was always constantly moving from one family member’s house to another and twice was taken into care, to kid’s homes. I never…
What drew you to poetry as individuals? Emily Prescott (EP):It may sound lazy but I think it’s the length. My first favourite poem was Carol Ann Duffy’s Mrs Dawnin: 7 April 1852. Went to the Zoo. I said to Him – something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you. I like to think…