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Sixty seconds with Simon Brett...
Simon Brett's first job out of university was as Father Christmas in a department store. From there he went into radio work, producing music programmes, sketch shows, panel games such as I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, and light drama, including Lord Peter Wimsey. His latter work led him inexorably in the direction of crime fiction, with several successful series (Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter and Fethering). He continues to write for radio as well. Brett has also been involved in various writers' organisations and is a former chair of the Crime Writers' Association.
RTE: Describe yourself in a sentence?
Brett: I’m an occasionally gregarious person who thrives on solitude.
RTE: What's the one record you'd take to a desert island?
Brett: Farewell, Angelina by Joan Baez.
RTE: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Brett: Part of me felt I should be a teacher, but more of me wanted to do something connected to the arts, particularly the theatre. The idea of being a writer was a kind of pipe dream; I never believed it would actually happen.
RTE: Who's your oldest friend?
Brett: There’s a guy called Roger who I went through school and university with. We meet two or three times a year for increasingly self-indulgent lunches and never run out of conversation.
RTE: If I ruled the world...
Brett: I would move New Year’s Eve to sometime at the end of May. At the moment it’s far too close to Christmas, and seasonal bonhomie just doesn’t last that long.
RTE: Which book do you wish you'd written?
Brett: The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.
RTE: What makes you angry?
Brett: Pretension, particularly in the arts.
RTE: Name your five dream dinner party guests.
Brett: Jane Austen, Nell Gwyn, Joan of Arc, Emma Hamilton and George Elliot, because in each case I’d like to find out what they’re really like.
RTE: Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Brett: Any of those pontificating women columnists who are paid a lot to have an opinion about everything.
RTE: What inspired you to start writing?
Brett: Reading good stuff and wondering how they did it.
RTE: Where would you most like to live?
Brett: I’d like to have lived in London in the eighteenth century.
RTE: Sum up your latest book in no more than 12 words.
Brett: An artist’s Private View is followed by a suicide. Or maybe murder…?
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