Speculation, Fact and Fiction

Ooh look, AL Kennedy will be writing fortnightly blog posts over at The Guardian's bookblog.

Today, she explains why "no amount of bad food and discomfort will put people off an author's life." A piece well worth reading, and not just for passages like

If they're successful, they still may not make a living, will travel more than a drug mule, may be so emotionally preoccupied that they fail to notice entire relationships, will have to deal with media demands no sane person would want to understand and may well wear far too much black. (Yes, it is slimming, but unisex Richard III isn't always what the occasion demands. Trust me: experience is a painful teacher.)

On the other hand

Nothing beats that raging delight at three in the morning when sentence number 15 finally agrees to do what you want, and never has banging wiggly marks on to a computer screen seemed so heroic – even if you're simply ensuring that the orthopaedic surgeon ravishing your senior nurse in the sluice room doesn't seem implausibly limber and can meanwhile reawaken echoes of that summer afternoon with her funny uncle ...

Yes, she knows whereof she speaks. I shall be following this series with interest.