I sometimes think I cannot write another passage about a disappointing meal ever again, because I've done it so many times.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I used to get criticized for putting food in novels.
There aren't many great passages written about food, but I love one by George Millar, who worked for the SOE in the second world war and wrote a book called 'Horned Pigeon.' He had been on the run and hadn't eaten for a week, and his description of the cheese fondue he smells in the peasant kitchen of a house in eastern France is unbelievable.
The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down.
A gourmet meal without a glass of wine just seems tragic to me somehow.
A number of people have read 'Two-Way Split' and made certain assumptions about what the author's like, and I'm highly disappointing to them. I don't drink, I don't eat meat; that's very disappointing for a hard-boiled writer.
A good meal is very important to me. When I have a bad meal, especially out, it's like I'm sitting in an airport during a flight delay. It's a part of my life I can't get back.
I wanted to write a food book, but I'm not a chef or an expert on culinary matters, to put it mildly.
I don't like to eat the same dish every day, so I read very different things.
You give the reader a sense of a full meal.
Exciting literature after supper is not the best digestive.