I confess I felt both flattered and honoured, not to say surprised, at Steve Himmer’s invitation to be a writer-in-residence here; even more so on finding that Lee Rourke is among my predecessors.

I was then even more flattered by the eulogistic introduction Steve posted up earlier this week. It is certainly very encouraging to have one’s work appreciated, especially beyond one’s own country, although my own work has been more widely known and commented on abroad — in America and Canada — than in Britain. There’s a Biblical quote about prophets going unhonoured in their own land. But ‘I am no prophet, and here’s no great matter’.

I didn’t, however, recognize myself in the description of ‘a literary citizen who offers his experience and enthusiasm to benefit the rest…’ Literary citizen? Having spent my ‘career’ on the margins, writing in the evenings and submitting to little magazines, many of which soon folded (cause and effect?), I feel less literary citizen than bewildered tourist. But I suspect most writers, even successful ones, feel like that at heart.

But having had that role thrust on me, it is one I’m happy to take on and try to live up to. So in the ensuing weeks, although I will naturally answer questions and criticisms on my own work, my emphasis will be on the work of others, both writers and publishers, here in Britain.

It may seem anachronistic in the Internet Age to speak of national literatures, but that parochialsim still, it seems to me, exists — the literary world has many mansions, and the fences are still as high. But to me, that is to the good, it’s enriching; local ingredients form a local cuisine which can then enrich more authentically the palates of others, both by internet takeaways and sustained international reading.

A more substantial post will follow early next week as the first part of my round-up of the literary world in the U.K. — within the limits of my knowledge of it.