Best-selling suit looks tailor-made for Welsh Ken Follett (Cardiff, 1949). More than 170 million books sold in 80 countries – ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ was his first success – have made him a fortune, estimated at 55 million euros, which allows him to have a Rolls Royce at the door without corrupting his left wing soul. In his latest novel, ‘Never’ (Plaza & Janés), unfolds a fast-paced race to stop the imminent threat of the Third World War. (And the worst thing is that it does not seem like a crazy argument).
All that remained was for Ken Follett to see a real risk of apocalypse …
Life has never been as dangerous as it is now. For much of mine we were only afraid of a war with the USSR, but the threats have multiplied. The worst is nuclear, although climate change or a new pandemic could wipe out many of us. We are very slow to address them.
Weren’t you optimistic?
I am, right. When I play, I always think I’m going to win. What has changed is not me, it is the world. And right now, I see no reason for optimism.
“Every catastrophe begins with a small problem,” says one of its characters.
An assassination in Sarajevo triggered the First World War. More than nine million combatants and seven million civilians lost their lives. Today there is enormous tension between China and the US. It is like a fire waiting for someone to light it. And the spark could be Belarus. To quell this possibility, the powers should not think “we are the strongest, we do not need anyone” – I hate that! -, but “we are going to be sensible”.
“There is enormous tension between China and the US and the spark that lit the fire could be Belarus.”
He has influential friends. Any inside information to share?
In what sense?
If you’ve been advised to buy a nuclear shelter, or something like that.
You cannot build one, because it has to be between 25 and 30 meters underground and have a powerful air purification system and millions of liters of water.
Other than champagne, which is crazy about you, what would you take with you in an emergency?
Lots of books and the computer, to write another novel, even if no one was left alive to read it.
“In a nuclear emergency, I would write a novel in the bunker even if there was no one left to read it”
Before that happens, count your formula for success.
What is really important is that the reader connects with the emotions, that he feels what the characters feel, even knowing that it is fiction. This is the spell that the writer must cast.
Many do that, not all of them sell 170 million books.
I do not know! I know that I am a writer because I started reading at a very young age and I know that I have a strong imagination. I would also say that I think more intensely than others about the reader. I always ask myself: “Are you going to believe this? Will you want to turn the page to see what happens?” I know many authors who claim to write to please themselves. This is not my case.
Who do you like?
Charles Dickens. I have read all of your books several times. I don’t have his power or his mastery in the use of the language, but he wanted, like me, to be read by millions.
If the main character in the novel were you, what plot would come out?
Oh Gosh! Perhaps the character would get into some dangerous situation and handle it very badly. A comedy would come out.
Don’t you trust yourself as a hero?
There is no romantic element in my life. Most of the time i’m home [una vieja rectoría de Hertfordshireen], in front of the computer, writing about an exciting world that is only in my mind. In the evening I have a glass of wine and end of story. I have never been to a military institution. I would hate to see myself in a dangerous situation. If you weren’t at home, you would be in a library.
“I’m not a very modest person, really. But I just pretend to live up to my reputation.”
His wife was a Labor MP and received death threats.
Barbara [Hubbard] yes you have taken risks. Not only in his parliamentary life. As a teenager in South Africa he campaigned against apartheid, which in those days was very dangerous. Some activists were tortured and killed by the police, and she was shot. From The Island of Storms in my novels women like her appear.
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Is it the one in charge of lowering your ego?
I am not a very modest person, really. But I am not one of those who argues with the neighbors, or fights at the door of the pub. I just pretend to live up to my reputation.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com