Shelf Life: Stephen Vizinczey

Stephen Vizinczey, whose 1960 classic In Praise of Older Women was re-released last year as a Penguin Classic, is next in the hotseat.

1) What are you reading at the moment?
 
Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam
 
2) As a child, what did you read under the covers?

I was lucky that I never had to read under the cover. From the age of 5 my mother was glad to see me reading. She didn’t care what I read, as long as it was a book.
 
3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one?
 
The Diary of A Madman
 
4) You are about to be put into solitary confinement for a year and allowed to take three books. What would you choose?
 
The complete works of Shakespeare, Attila József and Auden. I found that the best way to cope with solitude is to learn by heart poems which speak to you – blank verse, rhyming couplets or whatever.