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Hello and welcome to The Spectators Book Club podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor of The Spectator.

And this week, my guest is William Leith. I should say, certainly no relation,

though we perhaps have a lot in common.

William's new book is the cut that wouldn't heal

finding my father,

which is a very moving memoir of the death of his father

and much else besides.

William, welcome.

Well, thank you.

Now, your book sort of opens on your father's deathbed.

Yes.

What was the point? How soon after that did you know that this was going to be a book?

I suppose, you know, I always write about myself and whenever something important happens, there's always something

making me think, yes, I'm going to be writing about this. I thought about it for a while,

it took some notes and about two years it took before I wrote that scene for a piece in the Guardian. And I don't know why. I just called

them and said, or emailed them and said, read this, you know. And it was that scene. It was

almost word for word, except that the very end of the book, the scene includes the very end, whereas in the book

it doesn't get to the very end. You know, so there's a bit at the end when I'm talking to him

when he's dead, which was included in the piece. And then I kind of thought that that's the framework

...