John Barth
'The metaphor I like to use about writing comes from coastal piloting -in dead reckoning one determines where to go by determining where one is, by reviewing where one's been - that's the self-consciousness that I find in my fiction which is simply imitative of life.' The
American novelist John Barth , author of Giles Goat-Boy , The Sot-Weed Factor and Sabbatical, in conversation with Christopher Bigsby , talks about his life and childhood on the coast of Maryland; the consequences of being a twin; the impact of an academic career on his prose; and the nature of Scheherazade, who had to tell stories or die. Producer CARROLL MOORE