Conquering writer’s block and inner demons to boot

Writer DBC Pierre hadn’t a clue what he was doing when he wrote his debut novel ‘Vernon God Little’. It won him the Booker Prize and the Whitbread. He has gone from riches to rags and back again. He tells Sue Leonard.

DBC PIERRE didn’t set out to pen a book on how to write; he’s never been sure that writing is something that can be taught. When he embarked on his debut, Vernon God Little, he hadn’t a clue what he was doing, but he worked it out without attending a single writing class. That turned out all right. It won the Booker Prize, and the Whitbread, in 2003.

The genesis for his book on writing, Release the Bats, came when Pierre’s publisher asked him to write his memoir — a sensible request considering the author’s colourful past. Born in Australia, he spent most of his affluent childhood in The States, and then Mexico. Running wild in his teens, he went through a dark decade when he was essentially wiped out by drugs.