Matt Haig

She ended up being a head teacher of a primary school.

Oh.

So she did a lot of good things.

And who was your father?

My dad's Richard and he was an architect.

When I was growing up, he always, he worked in London, but he commuted.

So he was always back very late.

Often, I didn't see him until about 10 p.m.

at night.

But if I was still up, I would take our Springer Spaniel for one last walk to the train station and pick him up

and no my dad's a very gentle man very uh very good role model in the sense that he didn't present one idea of being a man i mean he had a very quite privileged upbringing went to boarding school and everything got a place at oxford but then um had what i think was a kind of breakdown at oxford in his first year

because he wasn't doing what he wanted to do, which was architecture, and then he left to Sheffield University to do architecture.

And I think within his life story, there was a lot, you know, I always had this sense that it's better to do, and sometimes even life-saving, to do what you want to do with your life rather than what outwardly looks academically the most impressive.

So he did what he wanted to do, ultimately.

They're still together.

And, yes, I think... That doesn't necessarily mean it's a success.

Well, I mean, he's not come to me... What was his name again?

Richard.

Richard Haig, yes.

And, yes, they've been together since their student years.