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The
Liverpool-born novelist airs her views…
JL:
Where did you first start smoking?
BB: I was
sort of interested, or went towards it, when I was 17, when I went
to Liverpool Playhouse, and everybody smoked, everybody. But I
didn’t. Then when I went into rep, later on, around the country. I
was about 24, when I started to smoke. But I didn’t really get into
my stride for many years because I didn’t have the money. And it’s
only with a few bob in say the last ten years that it’s got out of
control. I’d always had a cough, all through childhood, terrible
coughs, spitting blood, and about four year’s ago I had my annual
winter cough, which everybody said was smoking. Then they said it
was asthma, and I knew it wasn’t - I was convinced. And some
friends took me up and down Harley Street, x-raying every bit of
me. And they had a fit when they saw the x-rays, which showed that
I’d had TB as a child. Now my theory is that my lungs are so scarred
– the x-rays were so awful – that I couldn’t possibly get cancer
from smoking. Of course, it could ruin my heart, but my lungs are
safe. I don’t think the young should smoke, but once you’re past
50, I think it’s a mistake to give up. I think giving up could kill
you. I was also brought up on chips: egg and chips, cold meat and
chips, sardines and chips, and that’s the sort of food I like now.
And I think it’s what you’re used to. So if I gave up egg and chips
and ciggies, something would go wrong with my digestive system.
JL:
What’s your most smoker-friendly novel, or, indeed, anybody else’s?
BB: I
don’t think I notice, except perhaps in those American crime books
with private detectives…
JL:
Such as Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe?
BB: Yes. And
the Saint. I think the Saint smoked a lot.
JL:
When you’re writing, are you aware of your characters smoking?
BB: No. I
think I don’t because to me to say, ‘He turned and lit a cigarette’
is a cop-out. That’s making a space because you can’t think of
anything to write about. No, I don’t think I’ve ever used that sort
of thing.
JL:
What do you actually smoke?
BB: Silk Cut
Ultra. I started on Woodbines. My mother smoked Craven A and I
tried them but it took me a long time, well a week…I couldn’t taste
the filtered cigarettes. But I persevered, I wasn’t going to give
in.
JL:
Do you smoke a lot?
BB: Yes. I smoke a lot when I work.
JL:
Do you find that smoking helps the writing process?
BB: Oh gosh,
yes.
JL: Why?
BB: I dunno. It’s second nature. You’re sitting
at that damned machine, you know, you’re stuck and you light up and
you put it out and you light up. What slightly worried me against
smoking, is that I’ve been working in the top room of my house for
about ten years. It’s a pit. And after finishing the last book
about a month ago I decided that maybe I ought to decorate it. So
I’ve moved out the stuff and I’ve never seen such a rim of yellow
tallic acid– it’s ghastly.
JL:
Are you going to do anything about it?
BB: I’m going to wash the walls and do something
about the furniture, but I’m not going to do anything about me, no. |
