FIRST IMPRESSIONS: RICHARD MADELEY
What are you working on at the moment?
The launch of my novel, Some Day I’ll Find You. I know from seven years of running the book club that the days when an author deposited a manuscript with a publisher and swanned off are well and truly over. These days, it’s a hard slog.
When are you at your happiest?
I strive to be happy at all times. Life is so short.
What is your greatest fear?
Untimely death, obviously. Isn’t it everyone’s?
What is your earliest memory?
Lying in my pram in the garden of our house in Romford, watching blossom drift down from a pear tree.
Who has been your greatest influence?
I have the fact I didn’t go to university I impulsively left hungry for knowledge and an organised way of thinking. Like many who shunned university, I’ve been improvising ever since.
What do you most dislike about yourself?
My impatience and restlessness – I am always in far too much of a hurry. It’s only when I slow down that I really start to enjoy myself.
What is your most treasured possession?
I’ll have to answer that in the plural. My son, my daughter and my two stepsons.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Rudeness, which is merely unadorned selfishness.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My face. I look like a demented parrot in photographs. My broken nose, courtesy of a school bully, doesn’t help – it looks like a beak.
What is your all-time favourite book?
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. It’s a bewitching account of English magic in Napoleonic times. Harry Potter for grown-ups.
What is your favourite film?
The Long Goodbye – it has the most unexpected ending of any movie I have ever seen.
Your favourite piece of music?
Fauré’s Requiem. The purest piece of music ever composed.
Your favourite meal?
A really well-cooked, beautifully presented Sunday roast. The most important ingredient is the gravy. Without a good gravy, a Sunday roast is a desolate, sad meal.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
Having interviewed her at length for her autobiography, Hillary Clinton. An extraordinary woman. Both Judy and I have our fingers crossed that she’ll run for US president next time.
Which historical character do you most admire?
History is littered with greats, but as a general rule I truly admire those who, against enormous pressures and near-impossible circumstances, have managed to remain true to themselves.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
A total stranger I passed on a Cornish cliff path one day said, ‘I just want you to know that I loathe and despise everything you’ve ever done, ever said, or ever stood for.’ I have no idea why he hated me so much, but it made my day.
Do you believe in aliens?
Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t America, where a terrifyingly large number of people believe in Creationism... I love America and the Americans, but sometimes…
What is your secret vice?
Allowing myself to believe in aliens.
Do you write thank-you notes?
Yes, but they’re mostly thank-you emails these days.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
‘For ****’s sake!’
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Computer technology that’s as reliable as cars have been for the last quarter of a century.
What would you like your epitaph to read?
‘He lived a ludicrously long time, well beyond average.’
Some Day I’ll Find You by Richard Madeley is published by Simon & Schuster, priced £7.99.
The launch of my novel, Some Day I’ll Find You. I know from seven years of running the book club that the days when an author deposited a manuscript with a publisher and swanned off are well and truly over. These days, it’s a hard slog.
When are you at your happiest?
I strive to be happy at all times. Life is so short.
What is your greatest fear?
Untimely death, obviously. Isn’t it everyone’s?
What is your earliest memory?
Lying in my pram in the garden of our house in Romford, watching blossom drift down from a pear tree.
Who has been your greatest influence?
I have the fact I didn’t go to university I impulsively left hungry for knowledge and an organised way of thinking. Like many who shunned university, I’ve been improvising ever since.
What do you most dislike about yourself?
My impatience and restlessness – I am always in far too much of a hurry. It’s only when I slow down that I really start to enjoy myself.
What is your most treasured possession?
I’ll have to answer that in the plural. My son, my daughter and my two stepsons.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Rudeness, which is merely unadorned selfishness.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My face. I look like a demented parrot in photographs. My broken nose, courtesy of a school bully, doesn’t help – it looks like a beak.
What is your all-time favourite book?
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. It’s a bewitching account of English magic in Napoleonic times. Harry Potter for grown-ups.
What is your favourite film?
The Long Goodbye – it has the most unexpected ending of any movie I have ever seen.
Your favourite piece of music?
Fauré’s Requiem. The purest piece of music ever composed.
Your favourite meal?
A really well-cooked, beautifully presented Sunday roast. The most important ingredient is the gravy. Without a good gravy, a Sunday roast is a desolate, sad meal.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
Having interviewed her at length for her autobiography, Hillary Clinton. An extraordinary woman. Both Judy and I have our fingers crossed that she’ll run for US president next time.
Which historical character do you most admire?
History is littered with greats, but as a general rule I truly admire those who, against enormous pressures and near-impossible circumstances, have managed to remain true to themselves.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
A total stranger I passed on a Cornish cliff path one day said, ‘I just want you to know that I loathe and despise everything you’ve ever done, ever said, or ever stood for.’ I have no idea why he hated me so much, but it made my day.
Do you believe in aliens?
Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t America, where a terrifyingly large number of people believe in Creationism... I love America and the Americans, but sometimes…
What is your secret vice?
Allowing myself to believe in aliens.
Do you write thank-you notes?
Yes, but they’re mostly thank-you emails these days.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
‘For ****’s sake!’
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Computer technology that’s as reliable as cars have been for the last quarter of a century.
What would you like your epitaph to read?
‘He lived a ludicrously long time, well beyond average.’
Some Day I’ll Find You by Richard Madeley is published by Simon & Schuster, priced £7.99.