There are plenty of miserable millionaires all over the place.
From Peter Mayle
The great thing about having money is that you can actually just get on with your life and not have to think about paying the bills or crouch over 'The Wall Street Journal' or the 'Financial Times' and look at the stock figures and things like that. That bores me rigid.
I have a very set routine. I work six days a week, but only half days. I work from 9 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon, without any interruptions, a fair slug.
Very little happens in my books.
The funny thing in France is that writers are not allowed to retire, because the French government say you are still earning money from books you wrote 20 years ago.
It's very nice to meet the people who read my books.
In the south of France the phones cut in and out, the electricity isn't particularly reliable. I think many people would get very irritated with that life.
Nowadays, if you have a journey, albeit a simple one, you consider yourself lucky if nothing happens.
I left school at 16 and skipped university to work, initially as a waiter. I think I missed out on what would have been great years.
When I was very young in London, I had a bank account, which didn't have a great deal in it. I should think at least every three months the bank manager would call me up and threaten to strangle me because I had no money, and I was writing checks.
2 perspectives
1 perspectives