As A Writer, You Owe It To

'show Up At The Desk' Is One Of The First Rules Of Writing, But For 'wolf Hall' I Was About 30 Years Late.

Like A Historian, I Interpret, Select, Discard, Shape, Simplify. Unlike A Historian, I Make Up People's Thoughts.

Every Leader Operates Under The Threat Of Assassination.

But An Experienced Reader Is Also A Self-aware And Critical Reader. I Can't Remember Ever Reading A Story Without Judging It.

The Writer I Adore Is Ivy Compton-burnett.i Couldn't Get More Than A Few Pages In When I First Read Her. In Many Ways, She Is Very Clumsy And Her Plots Are Rubbish. But We Don't Read Her For That. There Are Pages And Pages Of Dialogue. What It Requires Is Real Effort And Attention.