When

I focus on new writing. Plenty is written about old books. But new work takes time to come into currency. Some are luckier than others.

I write. I have even written best-sellers. I may do again. But success as a writer is like playing darts – the difference between triple 20 and 5 is a bit of wire. Very narrow.

And the more books that are produced, the more the general level of writing tends to sag. The more the whole process becomes industrialised and the more the people you might want to write a book don’t and vice versa.

And even people who write great books, as the cliche goes, can still starve in a garret.