Christopher Wakling

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Christopher Wakling

Christopher Wakling was born in 1970. He studied English literature at Oxford University and University College, London. Before he began writing full-time in 2001, Christopher worked as a farm hand and then as a litigator for a city law firm.

As well as writing fiction, Christopher is a travel writer for The Independent. He has written on destinations including Puerto Rico, Wisconsin and Morocco, New Zealand, the Gambia –and the Isle of Wight.

He is also the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bristol University and has tutored numerous creative writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and Curtis Brown Creative. He is now the lead tutor and creative consultant for the latter, the writing school run by the London literary agency, Curtis Brown.

Interviewed 26 May 2018

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

I’ve made most of it up as I’ve gone along.

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

Chain oil, book pile, propelling pencil, bike stand, sandpaper, head torch, notebook, speeding ticket, photo of world’s first x-ray

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Fried egg and chorizo on hot buttered toast.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

I’m supposed to list lots famous folk here, but in truth it’d be six friends I’ve not seen in a while. And Bruce Springsteen.

Six things you can't live without ...

My family, books, my mountain bike, coffee, that toast I mentioned and – regrettably – my goddamn phone.

Five favourite words ...

Misunderstanding, ha!, concision, yoke, and any of the nonsensical words my daughter and I use on the way to swimming: such as hicklchicklclicks.

Four places you'd run away to ...

Avoca Beach The Malvern Hills Mother Ivey’s Bay California

Three books you've bought recently ...

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn

Two things that make you rant ...

My kids not switching off lights. Virtue signalling.

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

You’ll find her.