#WriterWednesday Interview with Humphrey Hawksley
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I’d like to welcome Humphrey Hawksley to the blog for #WriterWednesday.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Writing well
Easiest thing about being a writer: Writing badly
Something you’re really good at: Listening
Something you’re really bad at: Golf
Favorite music or song: Elgar Enigma Variations
Music that drives you crazy: “I Will Always Love You”
Favorite smell: Hyacinth on a spring morning
Something that makes you hold your nose: Rotting fish
Things you’d walk a mile for: A Sichuan meal with my wife
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Circular conversations led by people with too much time.
Favorite places you’ve been: Alaska, Bhutan, Kashmir, Vietnam, Iraq.
Places you never want to go to again: Chittagong, Mandalay, Monrovia
Favorite books (or genre): The Drifters, James Michener; The Honourable Schoolboy, John Le Carre; Killing Floor, Lee Child; Dead Line, Marc Cameron. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy;
Books you wouldn’t buy: Expensive, arty, coffee table hardbacks.
People you’d like to invite to dinner: Confucius; Lee Kuan Yew; Charlie Chaplin; Yoko Ono; Harper Lee; George Orwell; Cleopatra; Mahatma Gandhi; Leonardo da Vinci; Jacinda Ardern; Joan Baez; Meryl Streep.
People you’d cancel dinner on: Donald Trump, Kier Starmer; Joe Biden; Benjamin Netanyahu; Liz Truss; Rishi Sunak; Boris Johnson.
Best thing you’ve ever done: Left school at seventeen to go to sea
Biggest mistake: To soon to tell
The coolest person you’ve ever met: My son
The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Hugh Grant
The nicest thing a reader said to you: You are the best thriller writer we have
The craziest thing a reader said to you: Will you marry me?
Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Turning a news story about child slavery in West Africa into a global campaign against human rights abuse in our supply chains.
A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: As above. Slavery is worse now.
About Humphrey:
Humphrey Hawksley is a journalist and best-selling author whose BBC assignments have taken him to crises all over the world. His current Rake Ozenna international thrillers are set in the Arctic and High North. His earlier Third World War series focused on the Indo-Pacific. Humphrey is a regular guest speaker at universities and think tanks such as the RAND Corporation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and MENSA Cambridge. He hosts to the twice-monthly Democracy Forum Debates and the monthly Care Visions Professional Talk.
Let’s Be Social:
X: @hwhawksley; @Humphreyhawk
Facebook: Humphrey Hawksley; Humphrey Hawksley Books
Instagram: Humphrey Hawksley
LinkedIn: Humphrey Hawksley
Blue Sky: @humphreyhawksley.bsky.social
Truth Social: @hwhawksley
