The Wow Factor

My first excursion into historical writing – if it can be so described – was an attempt at the age of eight to tell the story of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The manuscript has not survived – fortunately, since its stylistic model was my then favourite reading, Film Fun – and I mention it here only because it seems to indicate an early impulse to narrate. Since I have never had the imagination to concoct a tale of my own, reportage has been my only hope; and this clearly means either journalism or history. My mother always wanted me to be a journalist, which I probably would have been if I had not to my astonishment been accepted into the Foreign Service; and for the next twelve years I was employed happily enough in London, Belgrade and Beirut.