00:00I mean it is the most incredible thing.
00:02Can you tell me about what spurred on this apocalyptic world?
00:09Mainly the 2008 financial crisis, which made me so angry.
00:15I wanted to write something which would be a metaphor for that kind of rage
00:23and which would feature the city of London as its kind of centre.
00:28And I started the book.
00:31I had a few of the characters and I had some of the settings
00:34and I had a few bits and pieces that I'd already written.
00:38We have it here.
00:39Can you show it to the camera, John?
00:43But it wasn't working, it didn't work.
00:47So I put it in a drawer for a couple of years
00:49and then I decided to cannibalize parts of it to make short stories
00:54because it wasn't working.
00:55And one of the short stories gave me the entire setting for the book.
01:02I suddenly thought, well, this is the blueprint.
01:05This is what I was waiting for.
01:07And so I took the whole thing back into my hands and worked from there.
01:12What fascinates you about apocalyptic life then?
01:18Well, I think most apocalyptic fiction is...
01:22I would go out on a limb and say all apocalyptic fiction
01:25is really about the times that you're living in, that you're living through.
01:30And it's particularly about the fears that you're living with, that society is living with.
01:39And I wanted to kind of mess about with that and have fun with it.
01:46I mean, I'm not John Wyndham.
01:49John Wyndham was writing about what had happened to the middle class psychology at the end of the Second World
01:57War.
01:57And he was doing it quite seriously.
02:00Whereas what I wanted to do was say, well, you know, things have moved on since then.
02:05They've got a lot more complicated.
02:07Everybody is a lot more confused.
02:09And so I wanted to write a satire on that kind of fiction.
02:16And if you could pick any classic book that's your favourite novel,
02:19you're not allowed to pick your own, what would you say?
02:28I would say that either it would be T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land or J.G. Ballard The Drought.
02:37Wow. And just what does it mean to you to be shortlisted for this prize?
02:41Everything. I mean, it is the most incredible thing.
02:45It's the most incredible position to be in after a career of 50 or 60 years of writing.
02:52I still can't quite believe I'm here, you know?
02:57Believe it, baby. There you go.
02:59Enjoy your evening and good luck.
03:01Brilliant.
03:01Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
