Sathnam Sanghera, a journalist writing in The Times today, describes a pain experienced by many in the writing and publishing game whenever they enter a bookshop.
Every visit serves as a reminder of all the books you have failed to read, all the books you have failed to write, all the books that are better than your books will ever be, all the crap books that are selling much better than your books will ever do and, worst of all, all the books you have written but are not in bloody stock.
Sathnam (right) was born and raised in Wolverhampton which is of no significance in itself, but another voice – Robert Plant (left) – from an earlier generation and the same part of the world as Sathnam, and an unreconstructed Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter also talks about writing in The Guardian today. Plant, in a comment worthy of the great Hank Moody, says
Show me a happy writer and I’ll show you a bad one.
Hank Moody, as you might possibly know, is the fictional writer pictured above and below, and played by David Duchovny in the TV series Californication.
South of Watford 