Ian Sansom is the author of the popular Mobile Library Mystery Series. He is also a frequent contributor and critic for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The London Review of Books, and The Spectator. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4.
Previously described by Alex Pryce as an author happy to make “mischief”, his latest book, December Stories I, is full of Sansom’s trademark humour – pulling together a rich collage of different lives lived over the month of December into something funny and sad, lovely and above all else utterly empathetic.
Nothing in the Rulebook caught up with Sansom to speak about his new book, his collaboration with the fantastic folk at No Alibis Press, and everything else in between.
INTERVIEWER
Tell me about yourself, where you live and your background/lifestyle
SANSOM
I am a small, round, bearded, middle-aged man. I live – as I have done for most of my adult life – in a remote corner of the UK which currently has no functioning government.
INTERVIEWER
Has writing always been your first love, or do you have another passion?
SANSOM
I don’t think ‘love’ or ‘passion’ are quite the words I would use. Flann O’Brien described writing as a form of vocational malfunction. For me that’s probably closer to the truth.
INTERVIEWER
Who inspires you?
SANSOM
In literary terms, I tend to admire writers who manage simply to keep going, despite all the odds. In personal terms, I have been blessed with many friends and colleagues who have been a great source of encouragement and inspiration.
INTERVIEWER
Who were your early teachers?
SANSOM
Alas, no pipe-lighting dominee lit my way.
INTERVIEWER
What does the term ‘writer’ mean to you?
SANSOM
A writer is someone who writes.
INTERVIEWER
Your latest book, December Stories I, exposes the idiosyncrasies and contradictions of human nature and relationships that the festive period brings to light. Of course, these contradictions are not unique to our species during only the month of December; but they do appear to be heightened. Why do you think that is?
SANSOM
In a word: proximity. The coming together of people – or the lack of coming together.
INTERVIEWER
Do you personally identify with any of the characters in the short pieces contained within December Stories I?
SANSOM
Madame Bovary, c’est moi. I’m everyone and no one.
INTERVIEWER
On a scale of Tiny Tim to Ebenezer Scrooge, where would you place yourself during the run up to Christmas and New Year?
SANSOM
Tiny Tim, if only for his plaintive cry, ‘God bless us, every one!’
INTERVIEWER
What research (if any) do you conduct before setting out on a new writing project?
SANSOM
Like most writers, I am incredibly lazy and try to avoid all research if at all possible. If it’s necessary, I will do what’s necessary.
INTERVIEWER
You collaborated with No Alibis Press to bring December Stories I to life. How important, for you, is the relationship between a writer and their publisher?
SANSOM
We depend on each other entirely. In another life, I’d maybe come back as a publisher, to see what the relationship is like from the other perspective.
INTERVIEWER
During a period of the year in which everyone is bombarded with messages urging them to consume more and more goods, food and services, it can feel harder and harder to take time out to read something that doesn’t make December out to be one long glorious month of consumerism. How important is it, do you think, for writers and creatives to try and step away from the background noise of advertising and product placement? And what would be on your Christmas reading list?
SANSOM
What is it that Walter Benjamin writes in ‘One-Way Street’: ‘What, in the end, makes advertisements so superior to criticism? Not what the moving neon sign says – but the fiery pool reflecting it in the asphalt.
The only book I read every year at Christmas is Delia Smith’s Christmas – it’s excellent.
INTERVIEWER
Do you feel any ethical responsibility as a writer?
SANSOM
It is clear that ethics cannot be put into words.
Ethics is transcendental.
(Ethics and aesthetics are one and the same.)
Lugwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. D.F. Pears and B. F. McGuiness (1961)
INTERVIEWER
You’ve previously asked whether paper can survive in the digital age. But in an age of e-readers and e-zines; do you ever feel that the traditional printed book may be at risk of disappearing? Or will they simply evolve?
SANSOM
Everything changes. Everything evolves.
INTERVIEWER
Seneca once wrote that the “reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady.” And advised that “You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.” When you read, do you find it helpful to linger only among a select few authors – or do you think it better to read as widely and voraciously as possible?
SANSOM
Personally, I am omnivorous.
INTERVIEWER
Could you tell us a little about some of the future projects you’re working on?
SANSOM
This year I am publishing 3 books: a novel, a work of non-fiction, and a collection of short stories. Plus all of the usual para-literary activities.
INTERVIEWER
Could you write us a story in 6 words?
SANSOM
Six words was not nearly enough.
Get more Samson here: watch the video of the author reading an excerpt from his latest book, December Stories I.
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