Mavericks need not apply

Philip Hensher gives a critical insider’s view of the Creative Writing industry

It has always been a challenge to get a novel or poem published. Twenty years ago, I went about it in the traditional way. I read a hell of a lot of books. I did a couple of literary degrees. I got an interestingly peculiar but rather gruelling job. I wrote a novel or two in the evenings or on holiday. Then I met a literary agent at a drinks party and he took one on and sold it to Hamish Hamilton — and has possibly regretted it ever since.

The traditional way has, in the last few decades, been supplanted by a more professional sounding one called the Creative Writing degree. It honestly never occurred to me that one ought to learn how to write on one of those programmes But I suspect that most would-be authors nowadays don’t think there is any other route to publication.