This interview with Moni Mohsin, author of "The End of
Innocence", was first published in May 2006. To find out more about
the author, please visit our Moni Mohsin page.
Where were you born and raised?
In Lahore, Pakistan.
What was it that first got you into writing and when did
you start writing?
When I moved to live in England in 1996, I was intensely homesick.
I yearned for the people, the scents, the sounds, the tastes. Writing was one
way of conjuring it up at will and lessening the distance. But I didn’t start
my novel till three years later when my daughter was born. I realised that,
growing up here, her life would be radically different to mine and hence
writing became a way of introducing her to the time and place that had produced
me.
Which writers have influenced you the most?
George Eliot, Evelyn Waugh and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Where do you stand on the nature v. nurture debate? Were
you born a writer, or were there factors in your environment that enabled you
to become a writer?
I was the third of three children. My siblings were both
pretty loquacious. By default I became the observer. I also come from a family
of gifted mimics. So I suppose that honed my ear and eye. But perhaps I would
not have become a writer at all if I had not moved away from home.
There are a lot of courses teaching creative writing
nowadays, but do you think that good writing can be taught?
The mechanics of good writing can be taught but if you
believe that good writing is more than mere technique then you have to accept
that courses have their limitations.
What kind of things do you write?
I’ve written a novel in which I’ve explored the confusion
of childhood and the pain of growing up. I’ve also done a fair bit of
journalism – mainly features on culture and a long running column in a
Pakistani newspaper.
What, for you, is the best piece of prose that you have
ever written?
Since I’m the worst judge of my own work, I am loath to
venture an opinion.
What are you working on now?
Another novel set, this time, in London.
What is your writing day like?
I drop my kids to school and rush back home to write –
with breaks for coffee, a walk, lunch, phone calls, email, admin, groceries,
staring out of the window and countless word counts – till it’s time to collect
the children. Once they are back, I have no time to write till they go to
sleep. And then I’m too shattered to do anything but collapse on the sofa and
watch TV.
Where would you like to be in 10 years time?
Can’t say. My ambitions are a moving target.
What’s the most exciting thing about writing for you?
When it flows.
What’s the most frustrating thing about writing for you?
When it doesn’t.
What’s the best piece of feedback that you’ve had from your
audience?
They read it at one sitting.
Do you write for a particular audience, or is your first
priority to satisfy your own creativity?
I write, first and last, to please myself -- and hope,
fervently, that there will be some like-minded people out there
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