Carol Clewlow interview

This interview with Carol Clewlow was first published in May 2008. You can find out more about the author on our Carol Clewlow page.

Carol Clewlow

Where were you born and raised?

I was born and raised in Glastonbury in Somerset, in the West of England, home of the famous Glastonbury festival, and the New Age centre of UK with all the hilarity and horror that this entails.

What was it that first got you into writing and when did you start writing?

My first book was a travel book, a guide to Hong Kong, which was the only the second book published by the now famous Lonely Planet company started by Tony and Maureen Wheeler who I met in Afghanistan when we were all doing the Hippie Trail in 1972. I wrote my second book, Keeping the Faith, in my third year at university, as a mature student in 1985. It was published 2 years later and short-listed for the UK’s Whitbread First Novel Prize

Which writers have influenced you the most?

Oooh, that’s a tricky one. Here’s a list from whom I’ve picked up over the years one thing or another, Anthony Trollope, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Dickens, Flora Thompson, Henry James, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Graham Greene, T.S. Eliot.

What kind of things do you write?

Novels of life and love… the only way I can think of describing them.

What are you working on now?

I have just finished a new novel called A Beginners Book of Magic. It’s with my agent, so fingers crossed

What is your writing day like?

Awful… another day facing that damned Mac. Normally I get going about 10.30, work till about 3.30. Don’t know how these people work all day. After about 5 hours my brain turns to mush

What’s the most exciting thing about writing for you?

The last stage of a novel, when all the little ends tie up (hoping that they do)

What’s the most frustrating thing about writing for you?

That it never gets any easier, only more complicated, and this because you know more but at the same time knowing more just makes they whole thing harder. The easiest novel is the first one you write when you don’t know a damn thing.

What’s the best piece of feedback that you’ve had from your audience?

Thank you. Simply that. Thanks for writing the book. Because I the reader (the most important person in the world) enjoyed it.

Do you write for a particular audience, or is your first priority to satisfy your own creativity?

For both… has to be for both. I can only write what I want and need to write, what inspires me, what I want to say and I think needs to be said. But it’s no good if I don’t have the reader at the forefront of my mind, what will make the novel work for them, give them a good day’s reading.

Do you have a homepage? Do you have any short stories or poems published online? (If so, please provide the URLs):

Find more about me through my publisher www.harpercollins.co.uk

My latest book, Not Married Not Bothered will soon be available as an e-book through them.

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