Writer’sBlock
Bunny Suraiya, the author of Calcutta Exile, is a newspaper columnist. Her first short story was published by Khushwant Singh in the Illustrated Weekly. She lives in Gurgaon with her husband Jug Suraiya and her dog Mili.
QDescribe your favourite writing space?
My home office, sitting with my back to the window, stolidly facing a blank wall, with a proper keyboard and optical mouse plugged into my laptop. A gently breathing and occasionally snuffling dog lying on the rug behind me helps.QDo you have a writing schedule?
I like to write only in the mornings. The fact that my morning starts at 11 am is particularly enjoyable.QEver struggled with writer’s block?
Not since I gave up writing advertising copy!QWhat inspires you to write? Do you have a secret trick, or a book/author that helps?
The fear of an imminent deadline, say for an article or a review, is a powerful inspiration. For my novel, no inspiration was needed. I couldn’t wait to sit down to it every day.QCoffee/tea/cigarettes — numbers please — while you are writing?
I’m afraid this is a really boring answer: no coffee, tea, cigarettes or anything else. I don’t drink the first two, except for a cup of organic Indian tulsi-ginger tea when I wake up, and gave up smoking 10 years ago. I resent stopping work for anything until lunch time.QWhich books are you reading at present?
Lijia Zhang’s Socialism is Great, Stephen Hunter’s Master Sniper and V.S. Naipaul’s Area of Darkness.QWho are your favourite authors?
Tough question. Alexander McCall Smith, Jane Austen, Philippa Gregory, Robert B. Parker, P.D. James, Chaim Potok, Ken Follett… too many, really.QWhich book/author should be banned on grounds of bad taste?
None. I don’t believe in bans. I think if an author is really awful, readers will refuse to read him/her, leading to an automatic market-driven “ban”.QWhich is the most under-rated book?
The Young Visiters (sic) by Daisy Ashford, written when she was just nine years old, and The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. Both these books are wonderful, absolute gems, but few people have even heard of them.QWhich are your favourite children’s books?
The Harry Potter series. I’m a complete Potter-maniac. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series comes a close second.
