He was in love with writing and with the idea of being a writer. It was also the 1960s. One left the suburbs for London, which in those days was swinging. Whether the suburbs are out of me is another matter. I certainly wanted to come to London to be with people who I thought were cultured.
Culture is rather sneered upon in the suburbs.
You're considered to be getting above yourself or it's seen as pretentious or financially not viable. So, yeah, I got out. When you leave university, everybody you meet wants to be a writer. And then after a bit you have to decide whether you're really going to do this or whether you're going to be an academic. Well, that certainly happened to my cousins.