D. J. Taylor

D.J. Taylor’s novels include Trespass and, newly released in the U.S., Ask Alice. His book Orwell: The Life won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 2003. His latest book in the U.K. is At the Chime of a City Clock.

From his Q & A with Anna Metcalfe for the Financial Times:

What book changed your life?

Orwell’s essays. It was Orwell’s voice that got me; it was like he was saying, “I wrote this for you.”

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Which literary character most resembles you?

One of the struggling hacks in George Gissing’s New Grub Street.

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Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with?

Christopher Hitchens. It would be jolly nice to have a full 20 minutes of “the Hitch” in full flow.

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What book do you wish you’d written?

Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.

Read the complete Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue