Literary King's

This summer King's is hosting a major literary festival, with some of our most successful literary alumni returning to the College to discuss the craft of writing. In Touch caught up with four of them...

Anne Sebba
‘I’d wanted to be a journalist since I was a child – I even had a toy typewriter. But I got my first break through King’s as Professor JH Elliott’s secretary helped me to type professionally, which got me my first job at the BBC. Then I went to Reuters. It was a time when women were breaking through barriers – Reuters hadn’t taken on any women on their graduate trainee scheme up to that point. And I was one of very few non-Oxbridge people on the scheme. It happened that they were looking for non-Oxbridge women – so much is down to luck and timing.’

‘What the internet has done is to make you feel all the time that there’s something more you could or should be doing.  The best moment is always when you’ve just sent something off – when you’ve been working on a book, and can see the fruits of your efforts, but the reviewers haven’t had a chance to put their knives in yet. I love the variety of what I do – writing journalism and short stories, introductions and biographies – and I love talking to audiences about books. It’s just evolved like that, being involved in lots of different things.’

‘We all think we’re going to write the great novel. I keep starting mine!  With journalism and biography though, you get a commission and then you’re working within strict time limits. Reuters was the most incredible training for writing to a deadline. The idea of giving free rein to your imagination can be terrifying. What I like about non-fiction is that you don’t have to make up the quotes. People who say - “I’m going to write a novel one day” - talk as if all that’s needed to produce fiction is time.

‘I work hemmed-in at an L-shaped desk, with a comfortable armchair to sit and read in. I don’t get up without having written 1,000 words, even if I have to re-write them the next day. I take a notebook with me everywhere – in the same way that some people make sure that they always wear clean underwear, in case they’re involved in an accident, I always take a notebook with me.’

‘My tips for being a writer are just to do it – don’t waste your breath talking about it. Get involved with a writing circle, where you can read your work out loud and talk to other writers. You need to study writing. And you need to get yourself out there – if you haven’t had a rejection recently, then you’re not trying hard enough.’