Have you cried yet today?
Sarah Winman is here to change that.
And therein, of course, lies the challenge.
Patricia Niven; G.P. Putnam’s Sons
What is the first thing ever that you remember writing?It was 1972.
I was eight years old and had just gone to the Tutankhamun exhibition and the British Museum.
I was mesmerized by this story of discovery, of kings and Egypt and curses.
Patricia Niven; G.P. Putnam’s Sons
I wrote my own play about it and performed it in assembly at my primary school.
A stand-off of art versus life.
And fiction wasMy Name is Leonby Kit de Waal.
Both superb, rigorous, and unsentimental.
What is your favorite part ofTin Man?The ending.
There are three, theoretically.
I think all three do justice to the lives that went before.
Ive heard its a complete joy.
Where do you write?I write in our small apartment in the middle of the City of London.
I sit at our dining table and often wear headphones because of the increasing noise of traffic.
Come dinner, I move my things away.
Which book made you a forever reader?I came late to reading fiction for pleasure.
That book wasA Prayer for Owen Meanyby John Irving.
I often quote the first four lines when Im doing events.
I can virtually see people sit up and go, I know this, I know this… Im not a big snacker, I just like the right piece at the right time.
Ive gone back to adark chocolate Bounty bar(its coconut), a favorite left over from childhood.
Always taken with a black English Breakfast tea.
What was the hardest plot point or character to write inTin Man?The beginning.
Its always the last thing I write.
If you could change one thing about any of your books, what would it be?Nothing.
They were of me and of my time.
There were no ghastly compromises made during editing.
But thats what happens when youre at the beginning of your craft.
You build on whats gone before.
IfTin Manhad a movie tagline, it would be:Go find him.
