William Trevor, the beloved, brilliant and prolific Irish writer, died aged 88 on November 20, 2016. Celebrating the great writer's legacy, here we recall a 2009 interview with Trevor, on the publication of his novel "Love and Summer." For writer William Trevor there comes a moment when it’s time to stop.
Whether drafting a novel or a short story he arrives at a moment of completion, the point at which all work is done. He will have written, rewritten and reworked elements of the story numerous times, agonized over the plot, fussed with characters, toyed with the rhythm and flow of sentences and made a final arbitration on every contentious word. And in the end, if he feels that everything fits as it should, it’s time to just let go.
Having typed the manuscript on blue pages using a manual Olivetti typewriter, he will close it and pass the finished draft to his literary agent for release into the conveyance of international publishing. It will be proofread one more time before the manuscript returns as a printed book but after that, the author will not look at it again. “I’m never tempted to go back – there’s not an awful lot of point in doing so really,” he says, sounding more like a midwife than mother.
“You know you’re finished writing a book when you’re getting bored stiff with it.” Novelists are highly diligent before committing to print but William Trevor is especially fastidious in his attention to detail. Clare Alexander, a former publisher at Vi.