What are you reading, Adam Roberts?
Drood, Edwin Drood.
We’re thrilled to welcome Adam Roberts to WAYR this week.
Tell us a little about yourself?
I'm a writer and academic: 22 novels, various short-stories, lots of academic books and articles. My day-job is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London. My most recent novel is Purgatory Mount (Gollancz 2021).
What are you currently reading?
Peter Beagle's peerless The Last Unicorn, which I'm re-reading for a thing (an online symposium). So, so good. I'm also re-reading Dickens' Edwin Drood, since I have to teach it next week. That's also very good, I must say. Quite apart from anything else, there's something just delicious about Dickens deciding to write a murder mystery, getting half-way through it and then dropping dead before he revealed his solution.
I don't only re-read stuff. Sometimes I read new things too!
What's the last great book you read?
I recently read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I know, right? Everyone knows the title, some people (like me) have dipped into it at some point, but most, like me, have never sat down and read the whole thing straight through. I decided to rectify that. And do you know what? It's really good: elegantly written and full of fascinating detail, yes, but also surprisingly gripping and more-ish. I hadn't realised that Gibbon traces the "decline" of the Roman Empire all the way up to the middle ages, the crusades and so on; and that the final fall is the capture not of Rome by the Barbarians but Constantinople by the Turks. Best of all are the footnotes. Gibbon may be the best writer of footnotes I've ever read.
What's your best advice for aspiring writers?
Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write.
You also need to revise. But that's a separate matter and comes afterwards.
What's the most interesting fact you've learned recently?
During the 2001 election campaign in the UK John Prescott arrived in Rhyl. A protestor called Craig Evans came out of the crowd on Prescott's left and pushed an egg in his face. Instinctively Prescott threw a left jab and hit Evans in the head. It was a nine days wonder back then, and didn't do Prescott, or Labour, any harm electorally. But recently I was reading a counter-factual speculation by John Lanchester (I think it was) who said: the thing you need to remember about Prescott is that he was a boxer in his youth, won a bunch of amateur contests and belts in the 1960s. He really punches. Lanchester suggests that had Evans chanced to come up on Prescott's right-hand-side rather than his left, Prescott would have hit him much harder with a right swing (his strongest blow). A really powerful, ungloved punch to the head would surely have injured Evans, and perhaps even killed him. It's hard to imagine Labour winning an election after its deputy leader killed a voter. Everything thereafter would have been different: Iraq, Brexit, these five questions. Everything.
Do you have any tattoos and if so what?
I have the words "The Poet's Rest" tattooed on my left shoulder. It's a quotation. Cost me ten pounds, back in the last century, and will last me the rest of my life. Indeed, will out-last me. What else can you buy for a tenner that's guaranteed such durability?
Thank you so much, Adam!
In agency news, Roz has become a mentor for The Female Pilot Club (in association with Screen Skills and Comedy 50:50), whose mission is to take un-optioned female written comedy scripts and present future Online readings and discussions about the best scripts are planned for late Spring '21. Comedy 50:50 are an inspiring initiative to address gender imbalance in the world of TV comedy.
Anne and Meg are taking part in the Jericho Writers 1-2-1 agent mentoring sessions. Jericho was founded by writers for writers, to offer expert advice to help aspiring authors develop their craft, and is a really fantastic resource for anyone who’d like to take their skills to the next level.
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