Gyles Brandreth

But you brood about it still or not?

Or you've just accepted, I don't write anymore, so there we are.

No.

I talk instead.

Because you love books.

One of the reasons that you're here today is because I very much wanted to meet you, because I've admired you for a long time, because of your ability to talk.

When I first came to America in the 1960s, on late night television, I discovered James Baldwin as a person who talked.

I realised after I'd seen him talk that I already owned one, if not two, of his books, but I hadn't really read them.

I had never been so captivated by a human being talking as by James Baldwin.

And years later when I discovered you, I thought, hmm, there's an echo of that.

You are...

We are similar ages.

I'm a little older.

You also were hypnotized by him, were you?

People who don't know him, they must look him up.

Because he also had these bulging eyes, didn't he?

I mean, the speed and the beauty of the way he expressed ideas.

It's why I brought you a little present, which I'm going to give you in a second when I've asked you my last three questions, which is a little plaque.

It's really a paperweight.

I know you don't have computers and things, but do you allow yourself a little paperweight?