In a revealing interview, celebrated author Andrew Miller has shared the intimate literary journey that shaped his worldview and propelled him towards a career in writing. From childhood favourites to philosophical awakenings, Miller traces the books and authors that left an indelible mark on his creative consciousness.
The Formative Years: From Bedtime Stories to Roman Eagles
Miller's earliest reading memory is a serene scene of childhood, sitting on a sofa with his mother reading Mabel the Whale by Patricia King. He describes the memory with the "serenity of an icon," a foundational moment despite his self-confessed status as a sometimes slow learner.
As a boy, his imagination was captured by Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, a tale of Roman Britain that fed his obsession with the ancient world. He recalls reading it in bed with his father on Sunday mornings, a setting he notes as being an integral part of the reading experience itself. The domestic backdrop included a reproduction of Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, which, to the young Miller, represented his mother.
The Awakening: Shakespeare, Lawrence, and the Call to Write
A pivotal moment arrived not from a book, but from the stage. At age twelve, Miller played Cobweb in an outdoor school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Wiltshire countryside. He describes the experience as transformative, with the atmosphere, language, and inherent sensuality of theatre pouring into him.
However, the book that unequivocally made him want to become a writer was D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow, studied for A-levels. Miller found the novel overwhelming, feeling it showed him Life itself. The final scenes literally forced him to his feet, filled with a mad excitement. He resolved that creating something of similar power was the best possible way to spend a life. He pointedly adds the shocking context that the book was censored and publicly burned in 1915 for its sexual content.
Philosophical Cool and Literary Rediscoveries
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 the stylish, unflinching philosophy of confronting life's absurdity without fuss. His literary loyalties were once divided by critic F.R. Leavis's implied choice between Lawrence and James Joyce. Miller admits it took him years to appreciate Joyce, finally discovering through Dubliners that no such choice was necessary.
More recently, he has returned to E.M. Forster, impressed by the author's deep sanity and urgent call for emotional maturity, citing Where Angels Fear to Tread and A Room With a View as particular favourites. A later-in-life discovery was Penelope Fitzgerald, whose final novel, The Blue Flower, he considers a "thrillingly strange" masterpiece and a portrait of sanity crafted from a lifetime of insight.
Comfort Reads and Current Companions
For comfort, Miller nostalgically longs for his old Tintin albums, recalling how he and his brother "couldn't get enough of it" as boys, despite acknowledging the controversial history of creator Hergé.
Currently, he is reading Tom Holland's Dominion, a history of Christianity's pervasive cultural influence, which is causing him to rethink lazy assumptions. Alongside it, he is revisiting the collected poems of Elizabeth Bishop, admiring her calm authority and the heartbreak beneath her wry surface.
Andrew Miller's new novel, The Land in Winter, is published by Sceptre.
