Captain Corelli's Albatross

Having already seen Louis de Bernières deliver an almost identical pitch for his latest novel, A Partisan’s Daughter, in his musical event at Valvona & Crolla, it is quite fortunate that the chair of his talk at the EIBF, BBC Scotland’s political correspondent Brian Taylor, throws the floor open to questions almost from the outset. Fortunate, also, as Taylor has a tendency to talk over his subject, and is frequently outdone in the intelligence and interest of his queries by those from the capacity crowd.

“They could have a belly-off,” offers a wag from the row behind.

Naturally, many audience members have little interest in his latest work, and want instead to quiz de Bernières on his past novels – not least Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, his breakthrough effort.

“Those characters are like old school friends – you don’t hear of them for 20 years, but they’re not forgotten,” says de Bernières when asked if he feels any nostaligia for the characters that brought him so much acclaim. “I do find that whenever I write a man, he ends up being Dr Iannis in disguise.”

While making the contentious assertion that his following work, Birds Without Wings, is “better” than Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – the literary critics and this reader wouldn’t agree – de Bernières insists that the more successful novel isn’t an “albatross”: “It would be foolish of me to repudiate it. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin made everything that has come afterwards possible.”

Turning to the inspiration for even older work – travels to Colombia for his magic-realist trilogy set in Latin America; outback lengends for his children’s story Red Dog – de Bernières suggests that it’s important to “replenish” life experience in order to be able to come up with new literary material. “Writing is easy when you’re young; it just flows out of you.”

For the time being, de Bernières is focusing on a screenplay for Birds Without Wings that will see him collaborate with a Turkish producer to avoid the pitfalls of working with an American studio – as experienced with Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. “Like losing your virginity, just because it doesn’t go well the first time, you don’t stop trying,” he concludes.