Richard Smyth: 'We all need an Otherland'

Fictionable

Last week we heard from Linda Mannheim, who told us that the only way she can go back to the neighbourhood where she grew up is in fiction. This time we welcome Richard Smyth and his short story Karóly Bálint's Metaphor.

Smyth explains how his story isn’t exactly set in Budapest and reflects on how the bleakness of the steppe echoes the stereotypical grimness of the north of England.

Writing in the third person can feel "restrictive", he continues, because he wants "to see inside", while the first person is "just more fun".

"Talking in a new voice is such an absolute delight," he says. "I think it’s one of the reasons why I write."

That and perhaps love – a subject Smyth says he returns to "again and again". Not that he has a rose-tinted vision of humanity, he adds. "My basic position is: people are all right."

Next time we’ll be talking baking with Ariel Marken Jack.

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