Book Interview: Publicity shy Park has always let his novels do the talking
David Park
David Park, 68, is the most self-effacing author I have ever come across. He didn’t even call himself a writer until his seventh novel was published back in 2012 – and only then because, faced with a form asking for his occupation, he was reluctant to write, ‘Retired English teacher’. Yet by then he had won a raft of prestigious prizes and was acclaimed for writing tenderly about terrible things.
He was shy about publicity too. My first interview with him was conducted over the phone because he was reluctant to ask for a day off from teaching; and he only agreed to travel from Belfast to meet me the second time, because he was getting over a dose of flu. Where does this modesty come from?
