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Q&A: Malcom Gluck
Litro Magazine talks to acclaimed wine author, columnist and now short story writer, Malcolm Gluck, about his lifelong love of literature and writing in our latest Q&A interview.
What is your earliest childhood memory?
Summer 1945. seeing a V2 rocket hurtling across the sky 80 yards away in my parents’ London back garden.
What makes you happy?
Too many things to list: seeing two people, strangers, together who are perfectly matched – finding a book in a secondhand shop which you have long been looking for.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer (or a wine writer, in your case)?
I wanted to be a professional writer from the age of 10. I never wanted to be a wine writer, The Guardian made me one out of the blue.
What are you reading at the moment?
The short stories of Elizabeth Hardwick, the poetry of AJS Tessimond, “Shakespeare Sex & Love” by Stanley Wells.
What advice would you give to a first time writer?
Never stop looking, never stop writing, never stop reading.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Green & Black’s almond milk chocolate.
How do you relax?
Ironing tee-shirts.
What is your favourite book?
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne.
What is the most important thing life has taught you?
Change is exciting. Extreme change dangerous. If you are unprepared you will suffer.
Malcolm Gluck has written 41 books on wine and for 16 years wrote the Superplonk column in The Guardian. His first foray into fiction is Château Lafite & Other Stories, available at waterstones.com and amazon. He has also contributed to issue 100 of Litro, with his story ‘The End of the Line’. Two more short story collections are planned.
