Number 37, exercise 64.0:02
How I became a writer and try to read it in the same manner.0:08
How I became a writer after Roald Dahl.0:14
A fiction writer is a person who invents stories.0:20
But how does one start on a job like this and become a full time professional writer?0:25
Nowadays, just about every single successful writer has started out in some other job.0:32
A schoolteacher perhaps, or a doctor, or a journalist, or a lawyer.0:39
Let me tell you how I myself got in through the back door and found myself in the world of fiction.0:45
At the age of eight in 1924, I was sent away to boarding school in a town called Weston Super Mare on the south west coast of England.0:55
Those were days of horror, of fierce discipline, of no talking in the dormitories, no running in the corridors, no this or that or the other.1:07
Just rules, rules and more rules that had to be obeyed.1:18
My memories of school are mostly nightmarish.1:25
My end of term reports contained only uncomplimentary words about my abilities in the subject called English composition.1:29
Only some of the examples are incapable of putting his words on paper.1:39
Vocabulary limited, idle and illiterate, no interesting ideas.1:45
Little wonder that it never entered my head to become a writer in those days.1:52
When I left school at the age of 18 in 1934, I turned down my mother's offer.1:58
My father died when I was three to go to university.2:06
Unless one was going to become a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, an engineer or some other kind of professional person.2:10
I saw little point in wasting three or four years at Oxford or Cambridge.2:20
And I still hold this view.2:25
Instead, I had a passionate wish to go abroad, to travel, to see distant lands.2:28
So I got a job at the Shell Oil Company where they promised me that after two or three years training in England I would be sent off to Australia, a foreign country.2:36
It depends where there is a vacancy.2:54
It could be Egypt or China or India, or almost anywhere in the world.2:57
That sounded like fun.3:05
When my turn came to be sent abroad three years later, I was told it would be East Africa.3:09
That journey took two and a half weeks.3:17
We went through the Bay of Biscay and called in at Gibraltar.3:20
We headed down the Mediterranean by way of Malta, Naples and Port Said.3:25
We went through Suez Canal and down the Red Sea.3:32
It was all tremendously exciting.3:37
For the first time I saw great sandy deserts and Arab soldiers on camels and palm trees with dates growing on them and flying fish and thousands of other marvellous things.3:40
By the summer of 1939, it became obvious that there was going to be a war with Hitler's Germany.3:56
On the next day, after Britain entered the war, I got into my car and drove north to Nairobi in Kenya to join the raf.4:04
For six months they trained us in small airplanes called Tiger Moths, and those days were also glorious.4:15
There were 20 of us training to be pilots out there in Nairobi.4:24
Seventeen of those 20 were killed during the war.4:28
I myself was shot down.4:33
My plane crashed in the Libyan desert and burst into flames.4:36
But I managed to get out and was finally rescued by our soldiers in 1942.4:40
My injuries began to give me too much trouble and I had to stop flying.4:47
They gave me a month's leave and then sent me to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Air attache.4:53
At this point, the United States was already in the war as well.5:01
I was 26 years old when I arrived in Washington and still had no thoughts of becoming a writer.5:07
During the morning of my third day, I was sitting in my new office at the British Embassy when there was a knock on the door.5:14
A very small man with thick spectacles entered the room.5:25
Forgive me for bothering you, he said.5:30
My name is Forrester.5:32
I nearly fell out of my chair.5:38
No, he said, smiling.5:45
It was the great writer himself.5:50
A magazine called the Saturday Evening Post will publish any story I write.5:56
I have a contract with them.6:02
And I have come to you because I think you might have a good story to tell.6:04
I mean, about flying.6:09
Come and have lunch with me, he said.6:12
And while we're eating, you can tell me all about it.6:14
Tell me your most exciting adventure.6:18
I'll write it up for the Saturday Evening Post.6:21
The Americans should know more about this war and help us.6:24
I had never met a famous writer before.6:32
In the small French restaurant, we took roast duck with vegetables and potatoes.6:36
The dish required so much attention that I found it difficult to talk.6:42
And apart from that, I have never been good at telling stories aloud.6:47
Look, I said, if you like, I'll try to write down on paper what happened and send it to you.6:54
Then you can rewrite it properly yourself, in your own good time.7:02
Wouldn't that be easier?7:07
I could do it tonight.7:09
That, though I didn't know it at the time, was the moment that changed my life.7:11
That night, I sat down and wrote my story.7:17
For the first time in my life, I became totally absorbed in what I was doing.7:21
I floated back in time, and once again I was in the hot desert of Libya.7:27
Everything came back to me.7:34
Writing it down on paper was not difficult.7:36
The story seemed to be telling itself.7:39
When it was finished, I gave it a title.7:43
I called it A Piece of Cake.7:47
The next day I sent it off to Mr. Forrester.7:51
Then I forgot all about it.7:54
Exactly two weeks later I received a reply from the great man.7:57
It said, dear rd, you were meant to give me notes, not a finished story.8:02
Your piece is marvellous.8:10
It is the work of a gifted writer.8:12
I didn't touch a word of it.8:15
You will be happy to hear that the Post accepted it immediately and have paid $1,000.8:18
I enclose the cheque.8:25
The Post is asking if you will write more stories for them.8:27
Did you know you were a writer?8:34
With my best wishes and congratulations.8:37
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