On Writing
Tony Rossiter explores great words from great writers
‘You’ve got to knock down the issue of “Does this guy know what he’s talking about or not?”’
MARTIN CRUZ SMITH
He was commenting on the amount of time it took him to research and write his bestseller Gorky Park. ‘It took me forever to write,’ he said, ‘because of my need to get things right.’ If you’ve read the book, you’ll know how successful Smith was in depicting Moscow in Soviet times at the height of the Cold War. As it happened, I lived and worked there at that time, and I can vouch for the authenticity of Smith’s Moscow.