ANGUS DUNN
About Angus Dunn
Angus Dunn is from the Highlands of Scotland and is the author of the novel Writing in the Sand (Luath Press, 2006) which was shortlisted for the 2007 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Angus was awarded the 1995 Robert Louis Stevenson Prize and the 2002 Neil Gunn Short Story prize. His short stories have been published in many literary magazines and in collections such as New Writing Scotland and Macallan Shorts. Stories have also been broadcast on Radio 4, Radio Scotland and Lochbroom FM. His poetry has been published in many Scottish magazines and anthologies. He was brought up in Aultbea and Cromarty, and now lives near Strathpeffer in Ross-shire.
An interview with Angus Dunn
When did you first begin writing, and what inspired you to do so? Have any specific books/authors served as inspiration for you?
I have wanted to be a writer ever since I was caught by books, probably when I was still reading Enid Blyton. It was clear to me that the best thing for anyone in this world to be was a writer, but due to some unspoken but powerful law, everyone had to pretend to want to be something else – a pilot, an engine driver, a sportsman.
I was wrong. There are, in fact, many people who did not and do not want to be a writer. Some of them don’t even want to read!
I started with poetry, or possibly song writing, when I was about eight years old. I finally got into the swing of things about twenty five years later, and I don’t think I’m likely to stop now.
Can you tell us something about the inspiration behind this work in particular? And about what you were trying to achieve; what ideas you were trying to convey?
In this collection, The Perfect Loaf, I am trying to tell you about the world as clearly as I see it, so that you can see it too. That is not always the case though. Sometimes I am concentrating on story, as in my novel, Writing in the Sand. Sometimes I am merely trying to make something that is beautiful.
How do you go about creating your voice on the page?
I just write until the words, so it seems, get up off the page and speak themselves. If the story doesn’t do this for me, then it’s unlikely to do it for anyone else, and I know it’s a dud.
How and when do you write?
I write sporadically – whenever I have any dead time, the notebook comes out. The longer-term writing takes place between nine at night and two or three in the morning. That seems to be the most productive time – or possibly it’s just the time when I’m least likely to be disturbed.
What do you enjoy reading? What are you reading that you can recommend at the moment?
In the last couple of months:
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. A fierce and uncompromising
delight. Intoxicatingly lucid.
Types of Everlasting Rest by Clio Gray. A bizarre and disturbing
frolic in a proto-European twilight world. Full of wonders, where it is not
terrifying – and sometimes there, too.
The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge. I like trees. Despite the
New-Age-y title, he’s a scientist, and he has the most awesome knowledge
of what makes trees tick. (Sometimes it’s a woodpecker.)
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett. One of the most consistently delightful
of writers, who understands that you can be thoughtful without being serious.
At least, he can.
And a special mention for David Mitchell. I haven’t read anything by him recently, but that’s just because he hasn’t written anything this year, damn his eyes!
