A Wasted Hour

by Jeffrey Archer

‘Hemingway, Steinbeck, Bellow and Faulkner,’ she replied.

The Grapes of Wrath when I was twelve years old, and I consider it to be one of the great novels of the twentieth century. “And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.” ’

‘ “Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella,” ’ said Kelley. ‘ “Seems to me sometimes it jus’ works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella.” ’

‘Nothing wrong with that,’ said John. ‘But if you’ll allow an old man to give you a piece of advice, don’t be in too much of a hurry to write the Great American Novel. Get as much experience of the world and people as you can before you sit down and put pen to paper,’ he added as he brought the car to a stuttering halt outside the college gates. ‘I can promise you, Kelley, you won’t regret it.’

‘I enjoyed talking to you too,’ said John, ‘and can only hope I live long enough to read your first novel, especially as you were kind enough to say how much you’d enjoyed my work, which, if I remember, you first read when you were only twelve years old.’