John Elliott (1938 – 2017)

In honour of John Elliott, who passed away early last week, we are posting here an interview first sent out to our e-mail subscribers on the 24th of August, 2011.

There are also brief personal tributes to John Elliott by Quentin S. Crisp, here and here.

An audio interview with him, conducted by Quentin S. Crisp and recorded by Joe Campbell, may be listened to and downloaded at SoundCloud here:

Chômu interview #2: John Elliott

It is a privilege today to be able to present our readers an interview with a writer who has given the world of writing something of great originality and value whilst remaining, perhaps enigmatically, a little off the radar. Please enjoy the following interview with John Elliott.

Chômu Press: There was a slight gap between your first novel (Another Example of Indulgence) and your second (Dying to Read). Are there reasons for this that you feel like sharing?

John Elliott: Slight gap is an understatement. Basically, my commitment to work and my alcohol consumption—socially that is—out of it eroded writing time. I’m also a slow writer even in the best of sessions.

CP: You are a jazz enthusiast; has this influenced your writing in any way?

JE: Yes. Along with books and the movies it has been a constant source of inspiration to me. A veritable ocean to dip into. In a purely personal way when I sit down to write—apply bum to seat as PG Wodehouse advised—I say to myself, ‘Let’s play a little bebop.’ It’s the idea of improvisation and the more remote possibility of transcendence that leads me on. Musicians talk about playing inside and outside at the same time. I translate that as creating surface but also trying to convey something below and beyond it. In other words, getting the combination of words, phrases and themes to achieve several levels.

CP: Did you have any particular impetus for writing Dying to Read?

JE: Yeah. I wanted to write something lighthearted with the aforementioned Mr Wodehouse and more especially Raymond Queneau as my guides. I’d recently read his A Harsh Winter (Un Rude Hiver) which I loved. As a youngster I consumed a lot of detection fiction so that attracted me as a background and genre. Once the characters appeared my fondness for them propelled me onwards. Making people laugh in the writing group I belong to was also a boon and a spur.

CP: What are you working on at the moment?

JE: A novel called Fake Book, which is a jazz term. It’s largely set in Glasgow at the time of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and is a love story. I’m a sucker for lost causes.

CP: Do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

JE: I recently greatly enjoyed Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi. I’d encourage everyone to read Witold Gombrowicz, Cosmos—Pornografia—Ferdydurke. Thomas Bernhard whose mordant wit and scathing denunciations I love. His technique is brilliantly shown off in The Loser, The Lime Works and Extinction. Robert Walser, greatly admired by Kafka, is worth exploring.