In one already notorious chapter, for example, Theroux's doppelganger is invited to have dinner with the Queen. I imagine that, by now, you must take this as a compliment. I don't know how to take it. But I think that what people call grumpy, prickly or dyspeptic is really a misunderstanding of irony. Because a lot of irony looks like dyspepsia.
Irony looks like prickliness.
It's veiled sarcasm. I think that the people who read my books and like them, and there are plenty of them, wouldn't read me if I was merely a bad-tempered person. In fact, I think of myself as a pretty good-tempered person. I think that, particularly in travel writing, we are used to sweetness and light. Wish you were here.