TY: I used to get that a lot, but my track record is now so bad that people expect me to quote them and aren’t surprised when they open my books, turn straight to the index, and find their names there. Indeed, it’s gotten to the point that I get more complaints from people who’ve been left out than from people I’ve put in.
SB: So what's next for you? Please tell me you're not going to write a book just about your family because I, like many readers, love living through your career blunders. You are like a one-man literary reality show.
TY: Don’t worry. I’ve already chalked up a few disasters since I finished the last book. For instance, I co-authored a play recently — a sex farce about the British Royal Family — that was universally panned by the critics. “Few shows of such embarrassing, authorial ineptitude can have hit the London stage since the Blitz,” concluded one old curmudgeon - and he and I both work for the same paper! I wish it was otherwise, but there’ll be no shortage of disasters to entertain readers with for the next volume.
SB: Speaking of reality shows, what area of the media are you going to try next? I figure you've done books, magazines, plays, and movies. Should we expect a television variety show? A rap album?
TY: I’ve been invited to appear on a British reality show called I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, which involves spending three weeks in the middle of the Australian jungle performing a series of humiliating tasks. Everyone I’ve asked about it has strongly advised me not to touch it with a bargepole — “It would be a career suicide” --so I’m strongly tempted to do it, obviously. I’d almost certainly be the first to be kicked off the show, but I could get a great magazine article out of it, at the very least. How can I go wrong?
Article comments
1 - Snarkattack
Stellar interview Scott. I think I'd quite like this fellow's books, must put them on the neverending "to read" list.
2 - Scott Butki
Thanks a lot. I'm glad you liked it.
He is definitely fun reading.