Andrew O'Hagan
Andrew O'Hagan
dreamer five haphazard harold learnt poets published reader taken terrifying
Long before I was a writer, when I was just a haphazard reader and a dreamer of stories, I learnt about an influential book by Harold Bloom. 'The Anxiety of Influence', published in 1973 when I was five years old, is taken up with the terrifying influence of poets on each other.
beings business celestial higher knew life ordinary political
When I was very young, I thought the theatre was a place where higher beings went about their celestial business, as if they knew nothing of ordinary life and its political mysteries.
aim best beyond class england habits middle people room society themselves version vision waiting
The working class of England today have no vision of society beyond the acquisitive - no version of themselves or their habits as anything other than transitional, on their way up or on their way out. The working class, at best, is a waiting room for people who aim to become middle class if possible.
echoes filled knew loved seemed
I always knew I would come to London. I loved Glasgow, but it seemed filled with echoes of my parents' lives, and sometimes you just want a city of your own.
america barack change democracy events extent victory works
Events in America show the extent to which democracy there is fuelled by populism - Barack Obama's victory is a manifestation not of Washington's need for change, but of America's. That is not how democracy works in England.
basic devotion human national nature recall unknowable
When I look back at my childhood on the Ayrshire coast, I recall a basic devotion to the idea that human nature and national character are as unknowable as the weather's rationale.
country near
The characters in 'Be Near Me' come from a genuine place, a Britain that is more than one country and more than one ideal.
culture high
High culture isn't what it used to be.
best condition era feelings galleries homes manage phoney seen
We now live in the era of fake consensus, or phoney populism, a condition in which galleries and homes are seen to succeed best where they manage feelings of non-difference.
elderly found full looked loving office people poetry
I had always been literary, in the sense of loving poetry and discovering novels, but I found my voice, as they say, in an office full of elderly people who looked after blind ex-servicemen.
struggle people principles
A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality.
dream jobs winning
The working class of England take their deracination completely for granted. Disenchantment is the happy code that informs every byway of the underclass: service jobs, celebrity dreams, Lotto wins, leisured poverty on pre-crunch credit cards, it's all there, part of the story of an English people whose grandparents never had it so good.
someone-you-love firsts one-you-love
The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone.
thinking tests limits
Traveling alone offers the chance to test the limits of what you think you know about yourself.