BOOKS BOUGHT:
- The Goldfinch—Donna Tartt
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold—John le Carré
- Spike: An Intimate Memoir—Norma Farnes
- An Officer and a Spy (Kindle)—Robert Harris
BOOKS READ:
- English for the Natives—Harry Ritchie
- Mo’ Meta Blues—Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
- An Officer and a Spy—Robert Harris
- Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957–1959—David Kynaston
The Believer, in common with other distinguished publications (most notably the New York Times), now asks its contributors to answer questions intended to clarify their relationship with the books and authors they are reviewing. This was inevitable, I suppose, and perhaps even overdue, given the shockingly opportunistic way in which one or two Believer writers have used these pages to promote their nearest and dearest over the years: by my reckoning, this will be the sixth time that I have written about my brother-in-law in this column, for example. The publication of Harry Ritchie’s English for the Natives, regrettably in the same month as Robert Harris’s An Officer and a Spy, has caused something of a constitutional crisis at Believer Towers, and, after long and occasionally ill-tempered discussions, we have arrived at a compromise: the questionnaire intended to ensure scrupulous probity has been amended as follows. (I reproduce both questions and answers, so that Believer readers can see that we have nothing to hide.)
HAVE YOU KNOWN HARRY RITCHIE FOR MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS?
No. I first met him at the beginning of the 1990s, therefore, I have known him for less than a quarter of a century.
HAVE YOU BEEN FOR A DRINK AND/OR A MEAL WITH HARRY RITCHIE ON MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND OCCASIONS?
No. As we have gotten older, family and professional commitments have resulted in us meeting up only every three weeks or so.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN NEXT-DOOR-NEIGHBORS?
No. He lived farther up and on the other side of the street, before moving out of the borough altogether.
WAS HE BEST MAN AT ALL OF YOUR WEDDINGS?
No. Only at the most recent.
ARE YOU GODFATHER TO ALL OF HIS CHILDREN?
No. Only to the youngest.
DID HE GIVE YOU A TICKET TO THE FOOTBALL LAST NIGHT, IN AN ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE YOUR APPRAISAL OF HIS BOOK?
No. I gave him a ticket to the football last night, for no reason whatsoever.
In other words, you can read on, safe in the knowledge that this isn’t some dodgy English old pals’ act. Ritchie (I always call him that) isn’t...
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contributor
contributor
Nick Hornby is the bestselling author of eight novels, including High Fidelity, About a Boy, and, most recently, Just Like You. He has also published several works of nonfiction including his ground-breaking debut, Fever Pitch, and has written numerous award-winning screenplays for film and television including Brooklyn, Wild, and State of the Union.
