Talented Edinburgh writer Andrew J. Wilson has been our second guest writer, following in Jasper Fforde’s footsteps in helping us to create the “lost book”.

Andrew wrote an installment of Sally Challenger’s journal, adding his 100-word microstory to those written by all you visitors to the website. (Don’t forget, we’re always looking for your help to write the journal – if you can tell us what happens next in exactly 100 words, please do!).

Andrew also helped Watson to track down some details about the mysterious artefact known as the Ikhata. Andrew’s Société Belge catalogue entry for the Ikhata is both informative and funny, and the attached photo finally shows us what this strange object looks like.

Andrew’s dragged himself away from creating alien worlds to answer our One Minute Interview. Keep reading to find out more.

 

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One minute interview: Andrew J. Wilson

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Occupation
Writer/editor

Where were you born?
The Granite City: Aberdeen.

Where do you live now?
Auld Reekie/The Athens of the North: Edinburgh.

How many books are there on your shelves? (Approx.)
I have about a thousand in the bookcases, but there are a lot more in boxes here, there and everywhere…

What’s been the most fun thing about this project? (The first word of your
answer must begin with L and the last word begin with B!)
Losing myself in the wonderful work that everyone involved has produced for The Lost Book.

Do you think that constraints are creative?
Yes, absolutely. There’s nothing worse that someone saying, “Do anything you want — at any length — in any style!” In the face of that kind of vagueness, you end up with nothing but metaphorical tumbleweed blowing through your muddled head. Constraints focus the mind.

Who do you think stole the book from the National Library?
Otto Dafé, of course, but not for the reasons K.B.E. think…

Which book would you most hate to lose?
The one I’m writing right now! (I have backed up my computer, haven’t I?)

Who’s your favourite fictional detective?
The unnamed Detective Sergeant who works for A14, the Metropolitan Police Department of Unexplained Deaths, in Derek Raymond’s Factory series.

Who’s your favourite fictional dog?
Jack London’s White Fang.

Which book has affected you the most?
The honest answer — not the hip or self-regarding one — is twofold: the Panther paperback of The Haunter of the Dark by H. P. Lovecraft, which I found in the local library when I was fourteen; and more recently, The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

When and where do you read the most?
If you’re not talking about what I read day in and day out for work, then late in the evening, when everyone else in my family has gone to bed!

Where’s your favourite ‘booky’ place?
Transreal Fiction, 7 Cowgate Head, Edinburgh EH1 1JY. (Hi, Mike!)

What do you like most about a book apart from the story: its size, its
smell, its cover, its..?
If it’s good, the typography.

For you what does a book lack the most – music, moving pictures, …?
Good books give you everything: the language has its own melody and rhythms, and it creates the most wonderful pictures in your mind. In fact, great writing plays on all five senses — and sometimes it even stimulates the fabled sixth one…

Have you ever used a book as a 1) doorstop, 2) missile, 3) an excuse not to
do the washing up?
The answer is no to all of the above — although I once used a copy of The Guinness Book of Records as a drawing board until I inherited a proper one from my grandfather when I was a kid .

Have you ever regarded a book as a friend, or indeed a monster?
Books act as a kind of printed telepathy that gives you direct access to the writer’s thoughts. If you like what they’re telling you, then you make a friend who’s always there for you, one who waits patiently on the shelf. If you really don’t appreciate what’s been written, then I suppose that would be like meeting a monster, but some of my favourite books are what I’d call friendly monsters — or monster friends. They take you places you might not want to go if you thought about it — for example, Where the Wild Things Are — but they hold your hand and lead you all the way back home again.