Friends of Begg x Co - Andrew O'Hagan
Can you tell us a little bit about your latest novel, Mayflies? Is it fiction?
Mayflies begins on the west coast of Scotland in 1986. It tells the story of a great friendship between a group of Ayrshire boys – good-looking, funny, music-loving teenagers – who join forces for a weekend festival in Manchester. Thirty years later, one of the boys has terrible news: the novel tells the story of his last year and the bonds of friendship that defined their lives.
What made you decide to write this book?
My best friend died. I realised there was a whole world of Scottish loyalty and life-loving that I hadn’t seen in the pages of a modern novel, and I decided to write it, to get all that landscape and human warmth between covers. I have been been overwhelmed by the response to the book internationally. It seems everyone had a special group of friends and everyone lives with the regret of having lost people.
The novel begins in Ayrshire, where you grew up and where our Mill is located. We often take inspiration from our surroundings, does Ayrshire inspire much of your work?
The look of Ayrshire has been in my work since the beginning. I am now working on my 10th book, and Ayrshire has had at least a small part, usually a very big part, in every one of them. It is the landscape of my imagination, and the sound of the local conversation is a permanent fixture for me. The light is different in Ayrshire: it is reflective of the sea and is silvery and cloud-filtered, and the breeze is full of salt and a sense of history lies in deep on the coast. It is a land of poetry and fellowship to me.
Can you tell us about some of your favourite memories from the post-punk era in Scotland?
I loved how young people defined themselves by the music they loved, and by the culture that sprang from that music. We were pretty international in our taste. We loved American punk bands and grubby little bands from Kilmarnock, with the same passion. It was a beautiful time, a thinking time, where resistance and political clarity mixed easily with the times. Industry was changing and technology was taking over, in my 1980s, and we sensed that life would never be the same as it has been for our parents. The future and the past were both an adventure to us, and I had a vivid childhood there.
Can you tell us a bit about what your writing process is like?
I believe in discipline and regular hours. I have an office outside my house, about 10 minutes’ walk away, next to the park, and I go there and pick up on whatever writing is open on my desk. I tend to have a book on the go at the same time as several essays, and sometimes a short story, and I’ll got from one to the other all day. I break for lunch as Sam’s Café, a little place I co-own in London, and will see my friends there. Each day is filled with something different, which was always the dream, really.
Have you read anything that has inspired you recently?
I’m a constant reader. I go to sleep reading and I’m reading within seconds of waking up. I have been reading the novels of the great French stylist, Zola. Also wonderful biographies of American President Lyndon B. Johnson, and lots of poetry, by Scots poet Robin Robertson and by Carol Ann Duffy.
When you're not writing, how do you enjoy spending your time?
I love helping with the café business. I enjoy fashion: the New York Times Style Magazine often send me on fashion expeditions (I once went to South Korea with Karl Lagerfeld) and I enjoy the drama of all that. I am a tremendous art-lover and can cross borders to see a single painting. And movies! Don’t get me started. I’ve loved movies since I was the tiniest boy in Ayrshire. I used to examine the horizon knowing that Hollywood was somewhere on the other side.
Can you name one thing that Scotland is famous for inventing that you couldn't live without?
The television. John Logie Baird is a hero. I can’t imagine a world without the brilliant and sometimes toxic interference of television. It is constantly changing the way we think. When times get tough, there’s always telly and a nice woollen blanket.
