Q: Your work is very personal, yet readers seem to make it their own. Who do you write for?
A: The memoir I’ve just written is about growing up in 1980s Scotland under Margaret Thatcher. It is very specific but, judging from the reader response, it is also universal–it’s my story of surviving, escaping into books and becoming my own person. You’ve all got your own version of that story.
So I write for you and I write for me. I would still write for me if you weren’t there, and you should be glad that most of what I write is seen only by me.
—Damian Barr is a journalist, author and salonniere. He has written for The Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, among others. His second book, Maggie & Me, will be published in the US in 2014 (Bloomsbury US). He is also creator and host of the popular Literary Salon at Shoreditch House.
