Last week, in honour of a new work by Alan Ayckbourn and an old (republished) novel by Barbara Cartland, I was asked to write a piece about prolific authors for the Telegraph. I worked out that Cartland must have written a novel every forty days: which is the same time Jesus was in the wilderness. I wonder if the two are connected? Anyway, here is a link to the article: click HERE.
The picture, by the way, is of Edward Gibbon. The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with a pristine volume of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is said to have uttered the immortal words: 'Scribble, scribble, scribble, eh Mr Gibbon?' Which, as a reviewer, I slightly feel quite a lot of the time; though, of course, this is an entirely contrary sentiment to my feelings as a writer.
Mind you, a lot of us are very grateful that Gibbon did keep up the scribbling. The first time I read it, my reaction on reaching the end was to wish there was another volume.
ReplyDeleteMe too - only unfortunately it sort of had to end where it ended, really... I once kept a book full of quotations from Decline and Fall but I appear to have lost it.
ReplyDelete