Writers are tarts

Tarts. That’s what we are, really, us writers. Not just in the general sense of loving attention – also in the more specific, ‘professional’ meaning of the word. Our living depends on how good we are at attracting people’s attention and, more importantly, their money. We deploy all sorts of tricks to achieve this, above and beyond the actual content of our books. They’re the literary equivalents of fishnet stockings and bright red lipstick. It was only chatting to a friend recently that I realised just how many tricks there are.

Travis Elborough and I had met for a drink, and he arrived bearing a copy of his new book, London Bridge in America. Travis had been keeping me updated as he researched the story of how London Bridge came to be bought in 1968 by a multi-millionaire American, then reassembled in the Arizona desert. So I was intrigued to see the final product.