TPQ: What are you currently reading?
PM: Chartwell Manor by Glenn Head. Graphic novel from Fantagraphics. A survivor’s memoir of his horrible school. I’m about to read it for the third time because graphic novels are deceptively fast to read. Detail can be missed
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
PM: Best book - Perfume by Patrick Susskind. It’s so well constructed with a very accessible style.
Worst book - The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling). Galbraith breaks so many story rules, but gets away with it because of his/her name. It was desperately dull.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
PM: Stephen Leacock’s The Great Detective in his Nonsense Novels. My introduction to an author’s attack on the establishment. I loved it.
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?
PM: Bismarck by Emil Ludwig. The first biography I read as a boy. For some reason it left a lasting impression. Never understood why.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
PM: Jeffrey Archer. He probably has the magic touch to sell so many books, but his Tory values put me off
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?
TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?
PM: For the School Colours by Angela Brazil. For a lesbian friend of mine because the main character rejoices in the name Lesbia.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
PM: The Tain by Thomas Kinsella. It features Cuchulain who is Overdue to be a movie hero. I go into it in my forthcoming book: Kiss My Axe, the secret history of Slaine the Warped Warrior. Sadly, because there’s no copyright on Cuchulain, it’s a risky undertaking.
TPQ: The just must - select one book you simply have to read before you close the final page on life.
PM: Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because my wife Lisa raves about it.
PM: Chartwell Manor by Glenn Head. Graphic novel from Fantagraphics. A survivor’s memoir of his horrible school. I’m about to read it for the third time because graphic novels are deceptively fast to read. Detail can be missed
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
PM: Best book - Perfume by Patrick Susskind. It’s so well constructed with a very accessible style.
Worst book - The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling). Galbraith breaks so many story rules, but gets away with it because of his/her name. It was desperately dull.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
PM: Stephen Leacock’s The Great Detective in his Nonsense Novels. My introduction to an author’s attack on the establishment. I loved it.
TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?
PM: H. Rider Haggard. Although I tried reading him recently and found him really hard going.
TPQ: First book to really own you?
PM: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I loved the characterisations, the narrative approach and the humour. It filled a gap in my life.
PM: H. Rider Haggard. Although I tried reading him recently and found him really hard going.
TPQ: First book to really own you?
PM: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I loved the characterisations, the narrative approach and the humour. It filled a gap in my life.
TPQ: Favourite male and female author?
PM: Favourite male - Graham Greene. Brilliant storyteller. Female author - Fay Weldon. Love her dark stories
TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?
PM: Fact. It’s usually much wilder than fiction. Thus I like Robert Graves The White Goddess, an intense and satisfying read that a novel would be hard to replicate
PM: Favourite male - Graham Greene. Brilliant storyteller. Female author - Fay Weldon. Love her dark stories
TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?
PM: Fact. It’s usually much wilder than fiction. Thus I like Robert Graves The White Goddess, an intense and satisfying read that a novel would be hard to replicate
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?
PM: Bismarck by Emil Ludwig. The first biography I read as a boy. For some reason it left a lasting impression. Never understood why.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
PM: Jeffrey Archer. He probably has the magic touch to sell so many books, but his Tory values put me off
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?
PM: Erewhon by Samuel Butler. World turned inside out – that’s the basis of most of the stuff I write. E.G. Requiem Vampire Knight series with artist Olivier Ledroit and here’s where it started in Erewhon, a world where sickness is a crime. And crime is an illness.
TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?
PM: For the School Colours by Angela Brazil. For a lesbian friend of mine because the main character rejoices in the name Lesbia.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
PM: The Tain by Thomas Kinsella. It features Cuchulain who is Overdue to be a movie hero. I go into it in my forthcoming book: Kiss My Axe, the secret history of Slaine the Warped Warrior. Sadly, because there’s no copyright on Cuchulain, it’s a risky undertaking.
TPQ: The just must - select one book you simply have to read before you close the final page on life.
PM: Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude. Because my wife Lisa raves about it.
I read a bit of Archer while in jail - a couple of novels. One I liked considerably more than the other. I would not be put off a writer by the values we ascribe to him.
ReplyDeleteLot of material here I have never heard of. The last graphic novels in this house were those about the Walking Dead. My son read them.