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Boots!

Where would we be without books?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberd.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we be without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Well, for quite some time, I've wanted to have Lawrence Norfolk on Bookworm.

He's my kind of writer.

He has just published his fourth novel, John Saturnal's Feast, and he wrote as well, first Lemprier's Dictionary, then the Pope's Rhinoceros,

third novel in the shape of a bore. I would say this, you know, A.S. Bayett was here.

She recommended the first book. David Mitchell, the author of Cloud Atlas, was here. He recommended

the third book. And finally, with the fourth book, we're getting to talk to one another. It's a rather different book for you,

isn't it? It is indeed. I've tried to be, in some ways, more direct. The material demanded it.

For once, the story came to me not fully formed, but the embryo was certainly there,

and it unfolded in a slightly more predictable way than some of my other books. What was the embryo? The embryo was certainly there and it unfolded in a slightly more predictable way than some of my

other books. What was the embryo? The embryo was, well, one of the sadnesses of being a novelist,

of course, is having to read the books of your fellow writers and like them. And I found myself

in that position with Kate Cahoon's Taste, a history of Britain through its cookery.

And I was skimming through and being rather surprised that we once had a cuisine that was actually

delicious and fun to eat rather than the one that we were famous for.

...