I think. It’s not the same as the physical space, it couldn’t be mapped. Where you’re from is a story you tell yourself, over and over. I recently moved back to the same street where I grew up (same street, different house) and it made me realise how much the landscape round here forms a backdrop to all my writing. Chesterfield is a great place. It’s not as cool as Sheffield, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. I love the two places equ ally. Finally, do you have many influences? Could you name some? Richard Hawley’s songs about Sheffield; real ale; Paul Muldoon; the Derbyshire fells; my friends; Richard Thompson’s folk music; Don Paterson; rock climbing; people who prop up bars; Mebd McGuckian and caffeine.
OUTTAKES
Helen Mort
i You taught me longing is a matter of suggestion: how the best directors keep the climax of the heroine off-screen and train the lens instead on something like her black stilettos standing empty by a doorway, or the left side of her bed. How, in ‘Fitzcarraldo’, Herzog lingers on a close-up of a leopard cub who scrupulously licks each paw while somewhere, out of shot, a couple tangle on a hammock bed, their laughter hardening.