Colm Tóibín

Briefly, you have a thought.

And people have speeches ready.

And then some other name is announced.

And especially the second time, I think, where I wrote a novel called The Master.

It's wonderful.

I thought that could win, but it didn't.

And yeah, there was a funny, I stayed on in London.

really where I thought no one in some funny hotel, no one in the world knows where I am.

And that was a funny feeling of just, I was meant to go back to Dublin and didn't.

I was meant to, I don't know, but I just stayed on and just basically just stayed in bed.

And then that was just fine.

It got over in a few days, but it stays with you.

It's just sort of public, no, public humiliation is too strong.

I mean, I think if you were going to be executed, it would be much worse, publicly, like they used to do.

But it has some of the elements of that.

Yeah, there was one year where, I think it was the year of the master, where they were always inviting posh lords to the dinner who had nothing to do with literature.

And one of the lords they invited was David Trimble, who was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

And somebody thought that since we were both Irish, and since we both liked Wagner, we should meet each other.

He looked at me.

It's a sort of horror.