Diplomacy was what I wanted to do. From really quite an early age and I think I had a false impression that diplomacy equals travel.

When McDonald's opened up in Moscow - I happened to be there when it opened and wandered in. And the Russians were queuing three times around the block to get in. And when they got to the head of the queue, they'd go, "I'll have a Big Mac please. Have you the cheese and the rolls? And do you have the meat and do you have the salad?" And everybody asks this because they are so used to things being awful that it took them a quarter of an hour to order a Big Mac.

A lot of books are sold and given away as presents. But who actually reads and enjoy reading?

Originally I wanted to be a diplomat, and by attrition I started giving up that idea.

I wonder if this reason is partly geographical, that talk radio is so much more successful in North America than in Britain? People who are very remote - I'm thinking of Newfoundland - feel very connected though the radio.

Radio is very popular [in Britain], but it doesn't connect us in the same way. It seems to have this community function.

One does have to learn to travel with a degree of humility and that reflected in writing and personality.