This month our Featured Author, Lynn Barber, answers questions from Ythan Reading Group in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.
Q: Is there anything in your life you would have wished to change?
A:I wish I'd had more children, and wish I didn't waste five years writing The Heyday of Natural History. Slightly wish I had left Penthouse and started as a writer a bit earlier.
Q: Was the writing of this book cathartic?
A:It was not cathartic, but reinforced my feeling that I have been incredibly lucky in my career.
Q: Did you ever discuss the Simon episode with your parents and if so what was the outcome?
A:I only discussed Simon after my book came out and Mum told me two things I never knew: that he told my parents (not me!) that when we married we would live in Israel! and also that my father went to see his wife and begged her not to name me as co-respondent in her divorce suit.
Q: In your preface you say 'being a great believer in Dr Johnson's adage that no one but a blockhead ever wrote except for money I shaped it into a short memoir' Was this an important reason for writing the book?
A:Money wasn't by any means the main reason for writing the article, but on the other hand I am enough of a journalist to want to be paid for writing!
