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S1, Ep2 How to Fail: Sebastian Faulks
How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
The Importance of Adapting to a New School
Being sent to boarding school at the age of eight was traumatic, he says. The world that you found yourself in bore no relation to any world I'd ever known. Iron beds, deads, weird clothes, weird food, Latin, Greek, hymns. But eventually you sort of got used to it and learned to fit in - which is so sweet but I rather enjoyed it. 'I'm not going to become a sort of prefecture,' writes Bennett.
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Speaker 2
How long did it take you to write? Was it quick? Yeah.
Speaker 1
It took about four months. I just dream of
Speaker 2
that. I dream of waking up having dreamt of the entire...
Speaker 1
Well, I started writing in September, I remember, and I really thought I should be doing a proper book. And then after about 30, 40, 50 pages, I said to myself, well, I haven't got another idea at the moment.
Speaker 2
So I'll do this and I'll give it to a Christmas and then I'll start a proper book. But by Christmas, I had finished. So it can't have been more than... So you see, in failing to write a proper book, you succeeded to write Engelbe, which for my money is one of my favorite of yours. Thank you so much, talking to me. I know you don't think you failed and you really haven't. But it's been very patient of you to talk to me with such eloquence and openness.
Speaker 1
Thank you. But just take out the saga.
Speaker 2
Oh my God. Did you fail your driving test, by the way?
Speaker 1
Oh yeah, I found my driving test twice.
Speaker 2
Well, there we go.
Speaker 1
Yeah, but I was still only 17 and a half when I passed it. So, you know, that's what I mean. It's had a fail. I don't know. My children are 27, 25 and 21 and none of them has a license. I failed my test twice, but I still had a license by the time I was 17 and a half. Do you remember what you failed on? Being too young and cocky. There wasn't a box they could tick, but you could tell that's what it was. But the third time I went back, the bloke said, oh God, you again. And he knew that if he failed me again, I'd be back again. I think you had to spend four weeks before you could come back. He knew I just keep coming back. So he eventually said, all right. Okay.
Speaker 2
Well, thank you. You turned those periods into success as well. Yeah, that's how you look
Speaker 1
at it.
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