![]() The school I taught in and the surrounding houses had been the fields and building sites that Paddy Clarke plays in. My parents still lived in the house I'd grown up in. I was 10 in 1968, as is Paddy, and I do remember that I was thinking a lot about my childhood, possibly anticipating my son's future. ![]() I don't really remember why I decided to write about a 10-year-old boy, or about that boy in 1968 - I don't remember the decisions. ![]() That there was still room in my life for writing. So, I started Paddy Clarke to prove to myself that I could - that it was permitted. But the other definition I'd only been getting the hang of, novelist, was being nudged aside, becoming a hobby or a memory. They were joking - I think - the friends who announced my retirement. I'd finished The Van, my third novel, the previous November and I remember being told, more than once, that it was the last book I'd write for a long time, until after the baby, and the other babies, had been fattened and educated. I started writing Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha in February 1991, a few weeks after the birth of my first child. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |