Paul Bailey / Features / Untitled Books

“The book I wish I'd written is Herman Melville's wonderful novella/story 'Bartleby, the Scrivener'. I read it whenever I feel low and it always cheers me.”

Paul Bailey

Paul Bailey's novels include the Booker-shortlisted Peter Smart's Confessions and Gabriel's Lament. He tells us about that elusive near-perfect book, the influence of Dickens and his admiration for Alice Munro.

Where are you right now?
I am in my house in a quiet street in Shepherd's Bush.

Where do you write?
Our kitchen is on the top floor of the house. The room is full of light all the year round. I tend to write at the dining table, by a window.

How do you write?
I write in exercise books or ledgers, in pencil, very slowly.

What keeps you writing?
What keeps me writing is curiosity about people and their funny ways. I also have an ambition to write a near-perfect book.

Who do you write for?
I write for myself. I am my own severest critic- hence the slowness.

Do you discuss your work with anyone?
No. Not until it's finished.

How do you know if your work is good?
My instinct tells me when I have written something good.

Do you have any unwritten characters in mind?
I have lots of unwritten characters in mind. The problem is when and how to use them.

Which book do you wish you'd written?
The book I wish I'd written in Herman Melville's wonderful novella/story Bartleby, the Scrivener. I read it whenever I feel low and it always cheers me.

What is your literary guilty pleasure?
Not a guilty pleasure, really- but I'm hooked on the crime novels of Andrea Camilleri, with their hero, the world-weary Inspector Montalbano. They're set in a brilliantly realised Sicily.

Which writer made you want to write?
Dickens made me want to write. Great Expectations in particular.

Who's the most exciting author writing today?
For me, the most exciting author writing today is Alice Munro. I worship her.

If you weren't writing you'd be...?
If I weren't writing I'd be a useless wreck.

What next?
I am writing a novella called Playing the Fool. It's about an actor. And I have been commissioned to write a memoir/portrait of my friend Beryl Bainbridge, who died in July.

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Paul Bailey's latest novel, Chapman's Odyssey, is published by Bloomsbury in January 2011.
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Monday, 20 December, 2010