Sam Brigger

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and...

The pleasure is sort of watching the daring of the sentence.

And there's like humor almost embedded in the sentence structure.

So how did you go about writing more in your father's style?

So, Nick, you grew up really during the height of your father's career.

And when his books came out, it was an event.

Like, everyone read his books.

I remember them sitting on my parents' bedside table.

And your father was...

One of the most famous, if not the most famous writers of his time.

He was a celebrity as a writer, but he was also considered a serious novelist.

What was it like to be his son at that time?

What was your home like?

Why did you decide to use a pen name?

I mean, I think you probably could have gotten away with being Nick Cornwell since you wouldn't have been associated with your father because, well, perhaps you would have been, but he was more known as a novelist as John le Carré.

Why Harkaway?

Because it does kind of rhyme with le carre, doesn't it?

No.

So, Nick, your paternal grandfather, Ronnie, it's known that he was a con man.

He did time for fraud.