You started writing your first novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion, 40 years ago. Since then you’ve published 20 books. What makes you so prolific?
I don’t think of myself as prolific. I’m one of those people who operates on nervous energy. I’m also very good at doing nothing. So, I’m not always able to reach that perfect balance of doing as much as I should be doing and not more. If I do, however, compress a lot of pointless activity into my day, then I often seem to operate better. If I don’t, if I try to do what other people call ‘relaxation’, then I fall into one of my favourite hobbies, which is hypochondria.
Your new novel, is set during the pandemic. How do you think COVID has changed our relationship with mortality, with ageing?
The first lockdown, as experienced by many people, was a softer run. I think most of us are aware, in some part of our consciousness, that we are mortal, though we try not to remember it. But during that second wave, mortality assumed a different dimension altogether. And there’s just a rippled mirror of that showing through in the book.
Your writing has always been informed by a sense of the erotic. Did COVID suck it out of this book?
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BOOKS
Books review
STUDIO - Off Lamington Road by Gieve Patel
Oil on Canvas, 54 x 88 in
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE
FOODS THAT FIGHT DEMENTIA
TO HELL AND BACK
The Darvaza crater in Turkmenistan is known as the Gates of Hell. I stood on its edge - and lived to tell the tale
THE SNAKE CHARMERS
Invasive Burmese pythons are squeezing the life out of Florida's vast Everglades. An unlikely sisterhood is taking them on
Sisterhood to Last a Lifetime
These college pals teach a master class in how to maintain a friendship for 50-plus years
...TO DIE ON A HOCKEY RINK
ONE MINUTE I WAS PLAYING IN MY BEER LEAGUE, THE NEXT I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL
Just Sit Tight
Broken, battered and trapped in a ravine for days, I desperate driver wonders, \"Will anyone find me?\"
Allow Me to Mansplain...
If there's one thing we know, it's this: We're a nation of know-it-alls
THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR (AND SUGAR SUBSTITUTES!)
It's no secret that we have a serious addiction. Here's how to cut back on the sweet stuff, once and for all.