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INTERVIEW
WbdsEamonn 0 N€itt
Photogr.pb Chds Btott
ln the US he's a literary
legend: an action hero in
themoutdof Hemingw
Buttake PaulWatltin
on a journeybackto Eton
and he's a tittte boylost
-, &rl Watkine rsrely retums to EtonlT
nasno rcarrsaa(m ur. AsaDwer-
-rie
f/ i.t he ca" al*ays }aul out a Etre.ftL
I ol meDories and sca.n ttrem. Anc
I anvwav. he lnows the bricks-end-
--tsr r€aliti, wil never match tbe version be's
conshucted in hs Psycbe.
But be s naldng an srcsPtion todaY.
His train Dulb iDto Win&or C€oh-al station
at Dr€cbelv i.Ogpo- It's s su@y sft€rnooD snd
a ;ash of ]ape.nese tourists llov.ls by him.
follovinq a womar with a kince William
mbrella-held doft. As Watkins stides hv h€
do€sn't @tice s@e oftho toutists daDriDgback
al hirD; nor does he see a Fetty weitress at a
cofte shop do the same; end he doesl sPot a
vounq Ambican corple state sfraigbt sthim as
irc chlcks tbe time on hls experuive It lian
Dilot's watch. NoDe of them lorw who he is,
i,et tfqlre aeerb inriguea- Dre$ed i! abbak
T-shn and kbalis, wearing a gre€n Gqe-'Ibx
mou.otaileet's iacket and carrying a black
rudcack he loc,l(s lil€ a 6ft 4in teDned visitG
from anorher plenet. He's one ofthose rare
peopt wno sinrply fitt a +oce bgger than th€to
This isnt tf,e first tiEe I've wimessed Paul
waikins'e unerrhg ability- to make.such an
enrsnce. PrBs reve$e and spm bacft grmost
Paut l[atkin5'3 relu.bnce to sFak about hb t.l.
ha5 ser€d onty !o meke him mole of an enigma
months: I'm sittiDg in tho foyer of a hotel
neer Pdnc€ton Univ€rsity b New Jeh€y. At
€ectlv the allosedtiEe cfz@, \ttetlins sEide,
into tf,e bbby. '?l€a!ed to-meet yorl" he says
inaorriorg niixcfAnericao, V/€bh md dtped
Eidirh acc€nts.
'Not 1ate, am I?' Behind him
a "L'fRl""line oftird businesmeo md wrmen
waitine it receotion swivel their collective
b"rd" io "o "fri'" wuekiog. Tley eye up the
sleepingnracava Ho'dhkedthaeldetkt"g
a b,resk ftm cto$-roEotiDg te,o boob, one
e novel the othen a u'evelogue, bo{h ofq,hich
sre s€t iallelY in Norwrv.
pinninq-a6t"n tlig l+year-old novelist for
m interview is e miDor diracle. Wbile sctrn€
authcs s€ ettrected to put licitv like Botb! to
tiqhts, Werkins is entir€ly the rwerse. ltis
eltittrde hsg sddd crrious leyen to hb bacl

INTERVIEW
> was ttre fiIst subje€t he'd met lvto "spoke in
DroDer. comDlete setrtences . It was a
'otsir"ati.n.
Precise
attlougb UAs a successfrrl novelist
whose sales easily Eatch tiose ot hrs us
contemDoraries Bret Easton Ellis and Jay
Mclneriev, WatJcins bas a day job too - he is a
writerin-residence and history teacher at a
wealtbv orivate high scbool ne3r Princeton in
New Jeriey, where his wife Cath teaches art
When I ask him why he chooses to keeP
teachilg even thougb he csn a.fford to write iul
tim€. he-asain ctoses bis e)€s "Because iPs pan
ofmv ovr'D-wav ofmaidaining l be ell-imPortatrt
En--.-pi" buir""" t qui*d to ke€p doing *t|ar
t do. he sa1s. He sounds like som€one spe€king
from a lonq distance away possibly eveD
semrared bv tine - uatil be blinls hs eyes open
aeiin a-od iuddenly he s back in 2004 Snall
winder another litaery com.Bentator bas sajd
"paul Watkins is a man ofbis times aI righl
it's just tbat his times are late 19th century."
en Dinutes laler we're sddingup the
narrow, winding main streetowards-
Eton Colleqe itseu. A scattering oi
llln€ Etotr 6ots lope by in tbeh white
collars eld tails uniforms.
'"Ihat was
me 20 years ago," muttels watkins- As be-says
this he screws his hce up no doubt recaEng
the weiqht of the Russian greaicoat he wore
then, thJ rub of the collar against his neck and
the awk*€rd Anslo-American seLt-awareoess
he displaved whm he was tbe same age'
'u4iatt
it like comlng back her€? I probe.
''Ob" odd - but oK he answers somewbat
trn.-otrvincinslv 'l'm more fearfrrl ofbumpirg
into people l'krow thal an)'thing else Y-ou
k otv ho* it l" "'tt* yo" .uo into someom alter
a bunch of yeers and tiey latew you wheo you
were vounqer ald it seems like you're not the
same ircnon aay more? You alrnost become thi'
apologist for your own-past t emg b-ad( nere
todav iust reinJorces lor me why lor some
oeooli th. me-ory of the place is more
imoortant tban the realig"
l'susoect he s ta.lkingabout himselfbere llis
own realiw is irdeed somewhere else: New
York is where he does most ofhis literary
business and where his formidable Iiterary
reDutation Dr€cedes him, and yet moven and
shilers in &at world have stated many times
that they've sirnply nevet met him --even at
his own book launches. He is a literary
shost. WheD chellenged about this. he smiles
inscmtablv. "well, ihaue images ofmvself
arrivingin iJew Yodc pulliagup ina cahoutside
a particulerly Iiterary gathering. teung the
calbie to wait, then t walk in and I do what
thev ca 'takine French f,eave'. which is you
*ik into the -"m, you make this great figure
o{eight. sav bello to as many people as you
ca-n, ind rhin you get back i.n the cab ard vou
leave. So somerimes t feel as fictional as the
characters T am detiverj.ng to the offices ofthe
publishing conpany. '
such an attitude has eemed wau0ns a
oenonarvtich is smewLere b€tween HeEiDg-
;y and lD Salinger' In hct, T was warned by
on; wel-meadns U$b€sed colleague to make
sure I was meetiig the real Paul Watkins and
oot some loony cioppelganger. Appar:otly
intemet sites have recorded nrmours ot tall.
handsooe, well-spoken wa&ins impostors
occasionally poppiDg uP in u.nlikely locatioos
He s also had hs share offemale $ouPies
altbouqb todav he blusbes at ihe mere meDtion
"Ihanldrlly
ofthe s'rbiect *d st *met":
I seem
to have hiked irto tbe footbills of less desirabiliw
recendv. '
D;DiF the bsgeage that bas b€en attacbed
to him by people who ve mostb never even met
hi-. in ;"i.d h" i" erd€-ely polita as opposed
to being mamered or peculiar. At times hrs
need to dose his eyes as he answers a quesbon,
or rest lus head on his hands, suggests more
of the shv scboolbov who habitually stered at
his feet in the oresince of adu-tts - wbich he
confesses he oice was - thau anything else
watkins's last book, The Forger' was a
sensatioo, gamerjng greet reviews and selling
bv $e truclload. Set in Pais dufingtie s€coDd
\irorld War, it follos/s a young American
character called Halifrx who gets caught up in
a messive art scam to stop valuable paintings
6llhd i.Dto Nazi hsnds. "Afterwards I almost
felt aiifit was too easy o write." says Watbls.
"I used to tose daysjust sitting there et tbe
kevboerd as this tale wmte itself '
ilis new book, Tbunder God, is as much of
a deoarture as is possible: e brillialt, sweePing
tale set in Vikine times wluch suggests the
NorsemeD migtrt ba!€ s€t fmt in Soudr Anerica
before the S;aniards atrd which charts the
su-uggle oftli old papn order against the-new
incoming sweep ofcbdstisnity. In tyPiql loll
he went to deat exhemes when r$earchrng rt;
in &cL Nationsl G.ograPhi" asked \iT to-write
a non-fictron travelogue about this back'
siound work. Called Fellowship ofcbosts i
is being published simultaneously in tbe U K
with his novel.
Ctockwise from toPl
Past Watkins on a
schootouting fiom
Eton,eqed 17t
working on a fishing
boat to pay his way
thmugh Yate, an
emerience that
nearty kiled him
land provid€d the
inspirdtion tor his
s€cond novell; aged
seven at th€ Dragon
prep schoot in Oxfordi
and Jennifer Beals,
the Ftashdance star
he dated at Yaie
Wa*ins has always had aEPutation for going
to sucb great often dangerous - extreme-slo
osearch his -ate.lul. H"'s ah€ a.otithesis ot the
pallid writer chaiued to a keyboard smoking
;d drinking" waiting for the muse to appear'
To res€arch his Morocco-based sbry rn tne
Blue ugbt of Africrn Drcam-s. he botn- lNed In
the countrv and l€arned to fly an old blplane;
for his disiurbing spy tale The Story of My
Disaooearance, which features a Russian agent
marjinedin the US called. waitforit I'aul
wa&ins, be delved into esPionage tradecratt
Lo such an extent that be reckons one live-radio
interview to which b€ was subjected was
orobablv set up by someone iD Washingtol
i'orried about the sheer depth ofhis intricare
Iaxowledqe of Soviet burst-radio sets
As we ivalk amund Eton it seems likely thal
beinq schooled in the equi\aletrt ofa museum
musiaccor.ut for his loue ofhistory end.keen'
ness to search out extr_emes in his novels tte
agrees: IfT had to find connective. t issue
between tbese two new book-s it wolll-d be tnc
idea of writj-og a5 a m€anc ol escaPe trom mn
rigidity ofthe school sysLem And in a \ /ay the
trirel menof becg.me abor'rt Ge more physical
side ofihe escaPe.
For the natt 20 minutes we stroll amuDd tne
shadowed main cor.rtyard ofthe scbool examininE
the ancietrt grafrti oD the *zlls A group
oftturists is being led amuDd oearby lD silencc
we walk tbrough tbe arcb€s' seeing plaque aJter
plaque to generations of G-crilies whose sons
attended t-his place and tben died in nuddy
Eenches for th; British empiIe. For Watlans.
the bis oroblem at Eton was his Amencan
nationlliw. whieb ensured he never became
pan ofue;ld*dool-tie Delwod{ Bul" in-a-twisl
Lis bmisinq memoir ofbis Eton schooldays Is
now on thl school s curriculum Bv dcfauJt'
Watkins, like Ian Flemi4 and George Orwcll
is now a star Old Etonian ail€r all
Would he send his own son here?
''Ilrere was a time I {lirted with $at ide€. bul
now I doubt it."
Whv did bis parents send him here?
-Thev t-bought it was the best educatioD
,uailabie. Or Jome sort ofweird revenge
is father was Norman Watkins, a
good-loohr:_g, talented athlete ari
Drolessor ot geophyslcs ongmauy
irorn Glaoorean irn Wales His
mother Patricia's family were from
Pembrokeshire. Paul watldns binuelfwas born
ir n€dwood City, Calfomia" and, until the age
of seven, had a bTic€l Amerjcan upbring!)g
Then. in the mid-1970s. his parnts decided to
send him to the Diagon plep school rD u)cord,
and tlen otrto Eton The oPening Line ot Sland
Befor€ YouI c'od bas already p*ssed into legenc
for the concise wav it captures dre forlom state
of the seven-vear-old Witki-os as he was abouL
to be disDatched on a decadeJong journey
tbrouEb ihe cagerns of a rypicallv English
'I
boardins-school education swear l thought
I was Eoinq to a Dartv," explai-os the narratorial
""i". ;f th; stif betilderid older author.
'"I'hat was mv mom up there." says Watkins
ooi:ofrns to a slrltll window oo tie grim second
'No
hoor ofa.n Eton buildlng sun jn summcr
and fieezinq in whter."
His breetLbrcuch book was a nwel he swted
at the Drecociouaase of 16 That work Nigbl
over 6ay over Night, told the story ofa vormg
Nazi who undereoes Eaining in the lead-un to
a tuaJ bloody bitde towards rbe cnd of the
Semnd World war. Watkins came up with the
Dlot aner b,'avelling to Germany while stiJl at
bton. An old ma:: -ho was part oIa fardly he
staved with had, it tumed out been in tbe SS.
Watkins sat on Ge manuscripl for a number of
vears while he attended Yale University - a
deliberate choice outwith the UK because, he
sa\ls. "l wanted io be somewhere where being
anold Etonianwssntsuchabigdeal'Tliked

that breathin{ space." But his struggle ae a
-orrU-fe a,rtlo iatinued atlble Dircouagementnorelv
*rved to fuelhis dot€tniDationesoecially
whm one bllow stud€nt said he'd
gil ana Jnd "p
"Aeeping in hs hassn€ne.
"I decided aiter tlat rtmark I'd rarhen dio in
a ditch than necl in the writing" he 3ay8.
a.fter gradueting from Y-ale he atteaded
Svrasls€ UDiv€[siW 93 a lsllow, @ a d€strve
;ritilq cours€ ov€rs€€n tt Tobias wolfi' the
b€€tsejliDs An€,ricsn ad[or ofThis Bds Lift.
A few m;Ddts into bir flst tero at Syrecue'
Watkins handed the manusoipt ofNiglt Oven
Dav over Niqht to woLff. witlin montls b€'d
secirred an aqmt and publisher. He wss bar€ly
into his twdties but-the novel was suddenly
beinc nominated for the Booker Prize - a fe-gl
be'd-pu.lled ofr by being rutrlessly foo.reed on
his q;tine to tle poiDt $sr his Glow studots
ar yate baib registercd his presence tlerebat
bllowed was a senselion
ofthe kiad raeb achieved in
u€r'sdlandcputlisbbgcrlqq
bv anv new ar,anor, nevttr EInc
oie in his earh twentie3. The
reviews wele Eafrc*toPPin$ *4 th" qft hg
wss haDdsoms in a square-jawed way didnt
do bis marketabilig ary hdn at rll Neith€r'
of couree, did the iact he was quietly datiDg
fr ow Yale sh.ldont Jmilbr Beals, th€ std of
Flashdance and ooe of Hollywood s hottest
' vor.rtrc o4h€sses et the time
raier tlis imaqe was boosted by what one
reviewer has referfied m ineiguingly as the
''stufoflereodl - an old-hohioned ist.figlt
between fatkins aod a Yale student wbo d
dared double-cross him over something on
which he refuses to be drawn EscaPades like
thaf elongwith his tougb masclline plots. bat'e
bmueht inevitable coEperisons with Hedingway."sd
his telse style is inde€d rembfucent
ofib,e Nobel Prize-vdnn€r, but WalkiDs ia wuy
ofthe comoarison, and ofthe tol tlatlivingup
to the self-inade, alcoholdriven nac.ho inagB
trxrk on the late author,
"I can assneyou I hsve
b€coDe verv, verv Eotective ald oftem very
ab€ert of*$ I a; Frtri"ed to be" he srvB iD
lcn' ton€s. It's one of the f€w times during olf
f,eeting that he sto'Fs Milingand-revegls a hDt
of surDrbi.D4 metal undemestb. lor e sput
second I glimpse the imageof a gelf-nade,
deeDlv Eivate man who could carry a crlrEon
,-aofoir"rl tb"t "i-pty oid: "Dctn't mess-."
Flm the odsel this det€(EiDAtion to blow
his own oarh showed tle! rmlike his flashi€,r
contemobraries, Watking refirsed - and still
refirses I to associsre with New Ycdcs &ug ad
bodze-fu€lled literary set Forget rcstaurants
mnarties: vou're mort likelv to tra.k him down
p.i"iog ouldo* g"rt - t"si*rching old plenes
i! an obscl.se librsry. EveD e3 a young erthor
he {ot stuck into novel numb€r two, Calm at
Su;et. Cdn at Dsvta rarher tlsn rest on hrs
laurels. A fictional account of his real-life
adventurcs as a student workbg on deepsea
fisbinq boarr, it won &e Encor€ Prize br ab*t
second novel. He bad become a Gehermanot
tliDlrd doice, hlt to pay his wry tbroug! Yala
'Lrv morber basicalv nade it howD to me tbrt
I hid to "ttr-p up s6t" "ae\" he says' toohng
wnrilv erould tIe Eton st€st dowtr wtich w€
are vialkins towerds tbe Thaaes. "Ther€'s
oeoole wafiinE amrmd weariitg clothes tbsl
i""t as mud asl eernea U two weel(s wding
otr e fuhng boat. The Fic€ youpy wdkiDg in
an €Dviroinent like tlat is bieb and Fu teDd
Eot to easily frrget it "
He alnost Deid for the €xpsi€trce with hrs
life. An onbo;rd a4cid€mt prilped his jaw and
he barely made it to-port - 4"9-ptqq
S+
eroeri€nces iDfuse all lrB work ]16 dllms ule
triumph of surviving the harsher aeP€c'ts of
F.dli;h subliHctroollift lends itrelfto m olda"Ei""il
- i"a""a atoiotty stoic - view of
life. and beleves such experieDc€sre often
'Myparcnts
thoughtEton
wasthebest
education
available.0r
somesortof
weirdrevenge'
the crain ofsaad that eventually produces a
pentl
_reluctantly e"a pe"tl" let cot"i"ty produced he
confirmg that Tom Cruise has
oDtioned 6ne ofbis boolg and that Miranax
bas paid calh ftr lte ForSer.
"Ilst'ing s@etli:ic
oDtioned is tbe aear€st thing to bebg
mad-e ii the Mafia for e writer," he says,
Ia lhins" "It'd b€ qeet ifsithg came oE but
fn-rot-holdilg my br€arh br ary pnmiaes."
ln mo.t of Ubtkin6S n@ls, the centrai mate
datacter frc€s a momeot v,h€n he cstr either
take an easv shdtcut or alongpr, more &frcult
hruiriEd;nv .GlinqDdL ihis "vou ere whd
vou do' cr€Ao iB ceDtr;.I to the authods belief
;vsto- He hced a sinibr crtuis shonty tft€r
his ardval d EtoD, when h€ wss coDioated
with the news that htu frther had died ftom
cancer. aged iust,O. Wa*ins had hown his
aaa w.rs ieri iudv in - "I rcmember ny frther
liftinl up his shirt ard showing me these
scan ftoir opersti(Ds that loo&ed as ifhe d beeo
ataclcd bvi lioo." he savs - but the eftct of
his death

INTERVIEW
> MaiDe. Literarv success has allovved him to
bw " .'ast uact of land up there - but he still
lns-ists on drivinc his battir€d old silver Volvo
on the lonc iou;ev.
oo"e enlionc.din M^i"e - fi and PC ftee
- he's efiectivelv out oftouch witb the modern
world and lives simpty. Eech morni4 he rises
earlv and heads for his little o$ce $frere etcienl
njlitarv rucksacks lir:e the *alls. Old sepia
pbotos a-od Eemorabilia he has collected fot
iesearch frIl tbe shelves. HatrdwritteD notes
thrt serveas m€nt l triFbaDm-ers are PiDned
neatlv evervwlrere, A snap ot bls hardsome
Ami *atclo -,er tri-. fffua*i* tites auri"g
his rnarathoD writing spells he crasbes in a
nearby mi[tarfstyle bunl that's every bit as
bard as it looks.
As we Dart in Windsor the i.ntewiew seems
to have exhausted him. He's kee! to retreaL
inside himselfagain. Eslentia.lly be's a private
man. He trulv oDlv reveals himsell a bit at a
time, in b;s noveb. rus ethics od prirra(y come
from a more serene, thoughtArl era. Maybe
thafs why be is regarded as being speciel and
a litde bit mysterious.
\4tben he hops onto his trein after we ve said
our rushed g6odbyes, I turn my back: then
suddenh recall one 6r:al question. I tum and
atempt"to follow him. bui T simply can't 6lrd
him- fi the mhutes that follow I searcb tbe
carriages e!'en noting tbet tbe solitary loo is
bmkeu and tap€d sh'rt - ]et I cannot iocale him
I'm Ieft nemlixed ad a little bit ratded. The
sinsular m;n who'd deirned he was the real
paul w.tlins ba" nsnished into thin an I
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