John Wilson

And you say it followed you around.

Were you aware that you got this reputation as the kindness guy?

Not a bad thing to be associated with.

Well, this leads us very neatly to your latest novel, Vigil, which again leads us into the spirit world as a spectral guide is sent to help a dying man.

He is her charge.

And she's helping him pass to the other side.

And the problem is he is...

not a good man, objectively.

He was a billionaire, oil baron, and a very active climate change denier.

And yet he's not completely villainous in your telling.

Does that all go back to this ethos then of see the good, every facet of character?

He's not in the bardo, technically, in the same way that Willie Lincoln was, because this guy is about to die.

Is this closer to a sense of Catholic guilt and redemption?

Because you mentioned earlier you were brought up a Catholic.

And just a word about his spectral guide, the woman who is helping him get a sense of his life and whether he should redeem his sins and who can help him into the next stage of life.

Who is she?

Your next choice for this cultural life, George Saunders, is a high school teacher called Joe Lindblom.

And you say, a day we spent at a Chicago area science fair and what it taught me about kindness.

So we're back to kindness again.

Firstly, what subject was Mr. Lindblom teaching?