In a revealing interview, acclaimed British novelist Andrew Miller has charted the literary journey that shaped his life and career, from early childhood memories to the authors who continue to inspire him.
The Books That Built a Writer
Miller's earliest reading memory is a serene scene of sitting with his mother, pre-school, reading Mabel the Whale by Patricia King. His favourite book growing up was Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, a tale of Roman Britain that captivated his boyhood obsession with the ancient world. He recalls reading it in bed with his father on Sunday mornings, a setting he notes is an integral part of the reading experience.
A pivotal moment arrived not from a book, but from theatre, just before his teenage years. At age twelve, performing as Cobweb in an outdoor school production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Wiltshire dusk, he felt two worlds touch. The overwhelming richness of the language and the atmosphere poured into him, a feeling shaped by both the anticipation of holiday and the awakening of adolescence.
Literary Awakenings and Influences
At eighteen, seeking to be cleverer and "a bit French," Miller turned to Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus. He describes Camus as "very cool" and admires a philosophy of stylish, unflinching observation in the face of life's absurdity.
However, the book that made him want to become a writer was D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow. Reading it for A-level at seventeen, he found it overwhelming. "I felt I was being shown Life," he said. The final scenes forced him to his feet, madly excited, and convinced him there was no better way to spend a life than trying to create something similar. He reflects on the shocking 1915 censorship of the novel, where over 1,000 copies were burned.
Miller admits that his early loyalty to Lawrence, influenced by critic F.R. Leavis, delayed his appreciation of James Joyce. It was only upon reading Dubliners, specifically The Dead, that he realised one didn't have to choose between the two vastly different literary giants.
Rediscoveries and Comfort Reads
Recently, Miller has been rereading E.M. Forster, impressed by the author's "deep sanity" and urgent call for emotional maturity. He highlights Where Angels Fear to Tread and A Room With a View as particular favourites.
An author he discovered later in life is Penelope Fitzgerald, whose final novel, The Blue Flower, he describes as a "thrillingly strange" and "obvious masterpiece." He admires the profound insight she brought to the fragments of an 18th-century German poet's life.
For comfort, he longs for his old Tintin albums, despite acknowledging the controversial wartime record of their creator, Hergé. As boys, he and his brother "couldn't get enough of it."
Currently, Miller is reading Tom Holland's Dominion, a history of Christianity's cultural influence, alongside the collected poems of Elizabeth Bishop, whose work he praises for its calm authority and underlying heartbreak.
Andrew Miller's new novel, The Land in Winter, is published by Sceptre.
