Blake Morrison Meet the Author


Blake Morrison

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Now it's time for Meet the Author.

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Blake Morrison has packed

a lot into his career.

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A former newspaper literary editor,

he became a full-time writer in 1995

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and has gone on to publish

award-winning novels,

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poetry and nonfiction.

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He's probably best known

for his bestselling memoir,

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"And When Did You Last

See Your Father?", which was turned

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into a film starring Colin Firth.

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So, perhaps it is entirely

fitting that his latest

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novel is about writers.

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The Executor follows a man

who becomes the literary executor

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of an old friend and poet,

and the moral dilemmas he faces

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when he uncovers unpublished

and potentially explosive material.

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Blake Morrison, The Executor raises

a whole host of ethical issues,

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not least of which is what's more

important, the right

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to privacy or the right

to freedom of expression?

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What was the starting

point for the novel?

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I suppose I have been very conscious

in recent years of a lot

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of controversies about writers

publishing stuff that

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other people perhaps,

members of the family,

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feel is painful, exposing,

that they don't like.

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Sometimes they seek legal action

to stop such a book,

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or whatever it is, appearing.

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So, I think there are moral

dilemmas for writers.

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And I think these days the rights

of the written-about seem

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to have come to the fore.

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So, it is an old argument.

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But I think there have

been lots of cases,

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particularly biographies,

that have come out where

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members of the family

really objected to them.

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This question has

become fresh again.

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Because what happens in this book

is that the wife of the poet objects

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to some of the poems

that the executor, Matt, has found.

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I suppose what is at the heart

of that is what's more important,

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the wishes of the living

or the wishes of the dead?

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Where do you stand?

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Is it a case of publish

and be dammned?

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Well, I'm a bit softer on all that.

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I like to think I would consult

members of my family

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if something deeply sensitive

was about to be published.

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And generally ask people.

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But then I know writers

who are quite brutal about it.

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You know, they assert their right

to write whatever they choose,

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and to hell with it.

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I think it's a balance to be struck.

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I think it's a matter

of individual conscience.

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But certainly there are cases

where you are going to expose other

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people by something you've written.

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And they're not always going

to necessarily go along with it.

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I think have been lucky,

the memoirs I've written,

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I haven't had a huge comeback

from my family, lots of people

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complaining or anything like that.

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But I am conscious of cases where

that sort of thing has happened.

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There's a further twist

in this book, if you like,

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in that it's not just the reputation

of the wife, it's actually the poet

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himself which could be damaged.

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I was very struck by one particular

line, where you wrote,

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the life was one thing,

the work another.

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A nasty man might

still be a great poet.

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And looking at the, I don't know,

alleged misdemeanours

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of someone like Kevin Spacey,

I wondered how possible

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you thought it was to separate

the art from the artist?

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I think, again, if you look

to the history of writing,

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you're going to come across many

authors who were not

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very nice people.

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I'm very conscious in my lifetime,

because I met him, what a bad

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reputation Philip Larkin developed,

the poet, after his death.

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And yet he seems to me one

of the great 20th-century poets,

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and nothing that he wrote,

for me, is tainted by the fact

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that he was accused of racism

and misogyny and so on.

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So, I think this is

a really difficult one.

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Could I now watch a Kevin Spacey

film and not be troubled,

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knowing what I know about him?

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I like to think that maybe, yes,

the integrity of the film doesn't

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suffer from what we know

about the man.

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But I would assert it all the more

in the case of writers.

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Yes, unless, I suppose, it implies

tacit approval on our part,

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if we continue to read their work,

watch the films etc?

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Yeah, I think we can

like the work and condemn

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the person for their actions

in their private life.

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But the art, the work, it does,

for me, always stand a little

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apart from the life.

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There's another line in the book

where the poet says there's no

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point being a poet now,

if you're white, middle-aged,

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middle-class and English,

you are a dinosaur.

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I did just wonder if there

are white, middle-class,

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young English male poets watching

this, you telling

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them to give up now?

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No, I certainly wouldn't do that.

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You have to allow for the particular

guy who is saying this, Rob,

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who's just got to that point

of becoming a grumpy old man.

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He feels a bit sidelined.

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He's had enormous success

early in his career,

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and now he looks around

and is a younger generation,

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a generation of people where gender

and ethnicity are perhaps different

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from his, and he misses

the success he had.

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So I think you've got

to allow for his prejudice.

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No, I think any young, talented poet

should just keep going.

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Robert Pope also says at one point

poets should not get

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involved in politics.

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Is that something that you think

writers should stay out

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of, current affairs?

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No, I think there can be a voice,

I think in my own writing I've

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sometimes done something that

could count as a sort

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of political intervention.

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Because I think sometimes

works of fiction, poetry,

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or different kind of nonfiction

journalism can shed light

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on a public issue, a political

issue, where journalists,

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and newspapers, and the media

generally have presented

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it in a certain way,

along comes a writer

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with a different kind of take,

a different sort of insight.

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So, I've always had this

argument with WH Auden,

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who famously said poetry

makes nothing happen.

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I think in a very subtle way,

poetry, like anything else,

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can make things happen.

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And you have had experience of this

as well, when you wrote your book

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about the James Bulger trial,

"As If".

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And I know in that book you said

he felt that his killers shouldn't

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have been tried as adults,

and he received quite a lot of abuse

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for that view, as a result.

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Did that make you more cautious

about getting involved in speaking

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out on topics of the day?

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I don't think so.

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I mean, I recently reiterated my

belief that ten-year-old boys should

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not be tried in an adult court.

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Which is, you know,

whatever horrible crime

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that was committed by the two boys,

and I'm not denying that,

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I watched that court case,

I was in that court,

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and I just felt the whole

process of little boys

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being tried in court was wrong.

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I continue to say that.

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I don't think I'm very

popular for saying that,

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and my son said to me,

don't go on Twitter, dad.

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You don't want to read what they're

saying about you on Twitter.

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But, you know, writers have to be

prepared to stick their neck out

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occasionally for something

they believe in.

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And I do believe strongly that it

age of criminal responsibility

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in this country is too low.

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It's much lower than the rest

of the world, really.

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Since 2003, you've been Professor

of Creative and Life Writing

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at Goldsmiths University.

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And again, in the book,

Robert Pope articulates the view

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that creative writing

cannot be taught.

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Which is interesting,

given your position.

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What do you think?

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I think it can.

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Do you?

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Well, put it this way,

I think skills can be learned,

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undoubtedly skills can be learned.

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Writers can be helped to develop,

they can learn certain techniques.

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Yes, in the end, perhaps talent

is innate, talent is crucial too.

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But I totally disagree

with Robert Pope on that one.

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I've seen how students have

come along, been helped,

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gone on to be published and so on.

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They've acquired skills that,

without going on a creative

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writing course, they might

never have acquired.

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You're probably still best

known for your memoir,

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"When Did You Last See Your Father?"

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Do you mind the fact that it's

a book that you wrote back in 1993

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that people still most

associate you with?

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It would be nice if I had a big

success with something now.

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But, you know, it's inevitable

and I'm very touched, and moved,

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when people still come up to me

and say thank you for writing

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that book, it helped me

grieve over my father,

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or whatever they say.

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It does bring us back, I suppose,

finally, to literary legacies,

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which is where we began.

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Do you ever wonder how

you will be remembered?

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I try not to think about it too

much, because it feels as if,

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if you're worrying about that too

much at my age, you're kind

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of writing off whatever

time is left to you.

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So, I haven't appointed

a literary executor.

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I've no idea what will happen after

I go, and what will be left behind.

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And I try not to think

about it too much.

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Blake Morrison, really

good to talk to you.

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I've enjoyed it.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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