Andrew O'Hagan

I say without hesitation, it comes straight from life for me.

This is the most autobiographical book I've ever written.

And I felt that trying to just characterise Tully, to offer a picture of what it's like to have a heroic friend who 30 years later needs you and depends on that old loyalty, but for a whole new set of reasons.

I mean, sometimes, quite rarely in my case, but sometimes in a writer's life, incidents from lived experience just pour right into a book.

And it hadn't happened to me very often before just in that way.

But with Mrs O'Connor, who you mentioned, that teacher was based straightforwardly on the best teacher I ever had, who happened to die in

in 2018, the same year as the person who the book was modeled on.

And she was a miracle for me.

I know people often talk about that one good teacher.

And in my case, I mean, she was from central casting.

She was this flame-haired Scottish brilliant lady who must have been only in her 20s herself, you know.

But when you're 15, you don't really recognize that your elders can actually be quite young.

And she took me on.

You know, I came from a big working class family, four boys, mother a cleaner, father a joiner, no money really in the house, no books and no guarantee of further education or any of that.

And she just took me by the hand and said, look, you like to be the entertainer.

But in fact, you've read more books than I have.

You can go places.

Let me show you.

And she did show me.

She was a miracle worker, really, and the kind of teacher that can transform a life.