Gyles Brandreth

And then what did you do in New York?

Because you had a variety of jobs.

One of them, I think, was writing pornography.

I mentioned, because the research mentions it, you writing pornography.

Yes, I did that once.

Oh, just once.

It was a one-off piece.

Because?

Because it was too hard.

Given that you were, A, a lesbian, and B, as you were telling me, not a very experienced one at that stage.

The material might have been quite thin at that time.

Is this the period, because we're now, I suppose, in the end of the 60s, is this the period you end up working with Andy Warhol?

Is this the same sort of time?

And Interview was the magazine run by, owned by... Yes, I don't think... It was called Andy Warhol's Interview.

And I... If you'd done the algebra, you wouldn't have made that mistake.

Your friend Debbie would not have made that mistake.

Our conversation is about your early years, so we don't really get into the triumph of your first books, which are bestsellers, but I'm intrigued.

You wanted to be a writer, and then you stopped publishing.

because of writer's block that has continued.

Just unpack a little of that.