Author: Catherine O'Flynn
Catherine O'Flynn is the author of 'What Was Lost', our chosen title for this year's Greenwich Reads.
We interviewed her at the launch of Greenwich Reads on 27 March 2008.
What was your favourite book as a child?
I think it was a non-fiction title called 'Clues and Suspects', which was a very handy guide for junior detectives. It had excellent advice on how to set up your office and trail suspects down dark streets at night. I'm not sure children would be encouraged to do that now.
Do you remember the first book you read?
It would have been the first Peter and Jane book in the Ladybird series. I still love the old Ladybird titles and collect them in slightly half-hearted way.
Where do you do most of your reading?
No one place really - I think the best thing about reading is that you can do it anywhere. A book is a far more portable, hassle-free and durable form of escape than anything else I can think of.
Some people have unusual habits whilst reading. Is there anything you do while you read?
I had no awareness of this - I'm intrigued now as to what these unusual habits might be. I think the wildest thing I might do is have a drink whilst reading.
Which author would you most like to meet and why?
I'm not sure I really want to meet the authors I love - I have their books. Instead maybe I'd be a martyr and choose to meet Jeremy Clarkson and implore him to stop with the books now.
If you were washed up on a desert island which eight books would you want to have with you?
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast
Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled
Gordon Burn - Alma Cogan
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
Patricia Highsmith - Ripley's Game
George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia
Is there one book that you couldn’t be without?
My mum had a book of household tips that came free with some magazine. It's called 'Tips and Wrinkles' and it's entirely insane. It amuses me even on the darkest days and I'd be sad to lose it.
What was the last book you read?
The last book I read by choice was 'Then we came to the end' by Joshua Ferris, which is funny and sad and excellent.
What do you do with a book when you have finished reading it?
Again I worry that I'm being terribly conventional with the answers 'put it on my bookshelf' or 'return it to the library'. I guess if I liked it a lot I will usually lend it to someone else.
Do you belong to a reading group?
No. I sometimes wish I was though as I so often want to talk to people about something I've just read.
Do you buy or borrow books?
I used to always buy, but now I generally borrow from libraries.
Like a lot of people, somewhere along the way I'd forgotten how marvellous libraries were, then I went to live in Spain and really came to depend on the small selection of English books carried by the local library and it reminded me what amazing places they are.
They are incredibly flexible and convenient now - you can order books online, renew online, collect them from any branch you want, return them to a different branch, and when you enter a library you see a really wide range of books highlighted and not just the few titles that are lucky enough to get into bookshop promotions.
I'm sounding evangelical. I'll stop now.
Find out about Greenwich Reads