Bruno Noble interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

I’m a writer who lives in Wimbledon and has a degree in philosophy and French literature — and who had a varied career in advertising and finance — as a result of which I’m drawn to complicated ideas and long, convoluted sentences such as this one.

When did your love of books begin?

With the Peter and Jane Ladybird books? Or with Enid Blyton? Or CS Lewis?

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

In my 20s, when I was a dilettante, when I liked the idea of being a writer more than the idea of writing itself. And then, older, I discovered the discipline to write in order to discover what it is that I have to say.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

It’s like walking.  One step.  Then another.  Repeat until you’ve finished your novel.  Spend a couple of years editing it.  Then you’re a writer.  But to become an ‘author’… that’s something else.  That’s persuading an independent third party that you’re worthy of being ‘an author’, that’s getting society’s stamp of approval.  I’m onto my third novel but daren’t yet call myself an author.  

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Do you want to be a ‘writer’ or an ‘author’? Writing is the process of self-discovery — that’s cool. Wanting to be ‘an author’ means ‘wanting to be considered an author’ — that’s suspect.

Tell us about your book/books:

A Thing of the Moment (published in 2018) is a novel about self and identity told from the points of view of three women.  I gave a talk about it here: https://brunonoble.com/self-and-identity-in-a-thing-of-the-moment/.  Rosetta in Colletta (to be published in 2022) is about a 16-year old boy, Sebastian, who falls in love on holiday in Italy, and about a retired CIA agent who recants his participation in Operation Gladio post-WW2. That’s when the CIA-backed Right-wing government in Italy committed acts of domestic terrorism and blamed the Left in order to frighten voters away from communism.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

The support we give each other. The best advice I can give writers is to join a writing group and, if there isn’t one near them, to create one.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Be forgiving! Re-read that sentence that eluded you first time around. The easy is not always rewarding.

Where can people connect with you?

My website: www.brunonoble.com.  Or on Twitter: @brunoauthor.