…come about, they did remain basically hopeful, comic, rational, correcting people's manners by excess or laughter. You're thinking of Swift, for example. I'm thinking of Swift, yes. And I'm even thinking of Samuel Butler's Eriwan. Which is nowhere backwards.…

…basically hopeful, comic, rational, correcting people's manners by excess or laughter. You're thinking of Swift, for example. I'm thinking of Swift, yes. And I'm even thinking of Samuel Butler's Eriwan. Which is nowhere backwards. Yes. that they appear to be…

…world in the last 25 years? I should have thought that it preceded that. And if you think back to Moore, or even Swift, or even Butler, where they're defining their good society, they're at their best, and in fact most of the time they're doing this,…

…reading, of satirical writing? Was it part of your satirical cast in your early books? Or do you relate to a particular fondness of Swift? I was very fond of Swift. A book I was very fond of, one of the few old funny books which remains funny, which…

…it part of your satirical cast in your early books? Or do you relate to a particular fondness of Swift? I was very fond of Swift. A book I was very fond of, one of the few old funny books which remains funny, which is The Letters of Obscure Men, the…

…which remains funny, which is The Letters of Obscure Men, the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, which is incredibly funny even now. I think Swift must have read them because they're so much his method. But this is a wonderful book. Have you read much of…