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Phoenix FM Podcast - Mark Hayhurst AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jessica Gregson
If you've read Friday at the Nobody Inn - you'll know what we are talking about when we say 'Steal this Song' Friday At The Nobody Inn - Mark Hayhurst Preview Jessica Gregson on The Noon Show What Mslexia are saying about us!  Click here to read more Three book deal for 'persistent' author
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Jessica Gregson Interview What was your favourite childhood book? It’s hard to choose just one, but I loved Antonia Forest’s school stories, and Masha by Mara Kay – now unfortunately out of print. Which book has made you laugh? Most recently, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Which book has made you cry? Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Which book would you never have on your bookshelf? Any book that I have no desire to read again. I have too many books already, and shelf space is at a premium! Which book are you reading at the moment? I’ve just finished How to be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward, and am about to start Collapse by Jared Diamond. Which book would you give to a friend as a present? It depends on the friend! I prefer to match books to personalities. Which other writers do you admire? Angela Carter, Yann Martel, Susanna Clarke, Orhan Pamuk, Rohinton Mistry, Jonathan Safran Foer and Stephen King. Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it? Vanity Fair. What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise? In no particular order: The Magic Toyshop, by Angela Carter; The Last Magician, by Janette Turner Hospital; The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov; Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke; and An Intimate History of Humanity, by Theodore Zindel. What is the worst book you have ever read? Luckily I tend to forget bad books as soon as I’ve finished them! Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer? I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, but The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter was the first book I ever read that made me think: I want to write like that. What is your favourite time of day to write? Evening. And favourite place? I’ll write anywhere, but bed is my current favourite location. Longhand or word processor? Word processor, though sometimes if I’m blocked it can help to switch to longhand for a bit. Which fictional character would you most like to have met? Again, hard to narrow down to just one, but I wouldn’t mind meeting Jonathan Strange. Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time? I’ve been a couple of hundred pages from the end of War and Peace for two months. I’m thoroughly enjoying it, but actually finishing it is going to require a degree of concentration beyond me at the moment! What is your favourite word? At the moment it’s ‘liminal’, but it changes regularly. Other than writing, what other jobs or professions have you undertaken or considered? In the past I’ve been a chambermaid, a barmaid, a waitress, a receptionist, a policy officer for a local council, a teacher, a proofreader, a humanitarian aid worker, and a civil servant – which I still am, three days a week, in between studying for a PhD and writing novels. What was the first piece you ever had in print? When I was ten or so, I had a short essay on environmentalism published in my local newspaper, the Manly Daily. What are you working on at the moment? My second novel, provisionally entitled The Ice-Cream Army, and my PhD! |
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