What are your five favorite books, and why?
Tough one! I loved Robert Tressel's 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' which was so good I read it twice, because it's all about what happens during the course of a year in a decorating firm, and this reflects life in general for the working man earning a crust, but it covers politics, trying to make ends meet with very little money, social issues, and it's all done so beautifully. Nineteen Eighty Four, Coming Up for Air, and Animal Farm, all by George Orwell, I loved for different reasons. NEF covers an alternative, and disturbing reality, subscribing to the 'square peg, round hole', philosophy, and what happens to misfits who don't conform to the regime. CUFA is about a man who goes back, many years later, to the place where he grew up, and having done that myself, I can relate to how unsettled the protagonist feels when he sees what time has done to his childhood home. AF is clever because Orwell uses animals to convey the different types of characters, from those in power to those who have to adhere and accept the rules laid down before them, and it's a very good story. And, all of the Sherlock Holmes books, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Very cleverly written, I love the protagonist and trusty sidekick, and, out of all of the mysteries, I only managed to work out the ending to one of them!
Describe your desk
I don't actually have one! I tend to write everywhere! Sitting on the bus on my way to work, at work during my lunch hour, or, in bed, which is where I spent a great deal of my time writing my essays, and studying the coursework for my degree. It was all done on my time off, I wasn't being a slacker!
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