Toby Litt

The author of Corpsing explains how a love of stationery got him started, and why you should avoid writing what you know
Toby Litt
'There are no short cuts' ... Toby Litt. Photograph: Martin Godwin

What was your favourite book as a child and why?

How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake. I liked this because my father used to read it to me, and the forces of anarchy and inspired improvisation won.

When you were growing up, were there books in your home?

Yes and some good ones, too. But my parents didn't have a library of the classics to force upon me. They were very into things like Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet. Not the kind of books I was likely to pick up and get into. I remember starting one of my father's Robert Ludlum novels on holiday, and being shocked by an extremely vivid sex/murder scene within the first 10 pages.

There was a nice little library in Ampthill, where we lived, and I used to get Michael Moorcock novels out. I hated most of the books we had to read at school, like John Steinbeck and Harper Lee. They were all about rural misery in the American south. Nothing wrong with that as such. But they were all about that.

Was there someone who got you interested in reading books or writing?

Not really. My parents bewailed my addiction to TV. They even threatened to throw it out. But it was books themselves that got me reading. I started to find them more interesting than all the boring TV that was on. I particularly wanted fantasy, of the Lord of the Rings sort, and what came to me via the mainstream media was just rubbish.

What made you want to write when you were starting out?

I liked using the stationery from the shop across the road.

Do you find it easy?

No, it's only easy when it's going very well. And then I tend to mistrust it. But I do think I write better when I write fast.

What drives you to write now?

The things I think writing can and should do that it hasn't done. Which amounts to trying to tell some sort of truth.

When it comes to writing, do you have a daily routine?

Absolutely not. I have to improvise around the rest of life.

Do you find working alone difficult?

No. It's my favourite thing. Being able to complete a novel without interference is the greatest privilege.


I didn't have anyone to get advice from. In many ways I really hate Hemingway, but he said something very useful in A Moveable Feast: "I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day." Reading this enabled me to complete my first novel, so I should be more grateful to the old fake.

What advice would you give to new writers?


Is there a secret to writing?

Yes. There are no short cuts.

What are you working on now?

A science fiction novel called Journey into Space.

I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay by Toby Litt is published in paperback by Hamish Hamilton.

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