My Only Regret Is That I Signed

I Was Going To Say 'my Friend Stuart', But I Suppose He's Not A Friend Any More. I Seem To Have Lost A Number Of Friends In The Last Few Years. I Don't Mean That I've Fallen Out With Them, In Any Dramatic Way. We've Just Decided Not To Stay In Touch. And That's What It's Been: A Decision, A Conscious Decision, Because It's Not Difficult To Stay In Touch With People Nowadays, There Are So Many Different Ways Of Doing It. But As You Get Older, I Think That Some Friendships Start To Feel Increasingly Redundant. You Just Find Yourself Asking, "what's The Point?" And Then You Stop.

I Have Two Ideas For Novels At The Moment, Neither Of Them All That Conventional, But I'm Not Ready To Choose Between Them Yet, Let Alone Settle Down To The Process Of Writing.

Thatcherism Has Become Bigger Than She Ever Was.

But You Can Try To Read Books At The Wrong Time Or For The Wrong Reasons.

The Biggest Markets For My Books Outside The Uk Are France And Italy, And Those Are The Two Countries Where I Also Have The Closest Personal Relationships With My Translators - I Don't Know Whether That's A Coincidence, Or If There's Something To Be Learned From It.