Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius

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Oh, and money was an issue for both of them when they were growing up. There were and are so many poor people in the world that it doesn’t feel like much of a big deal, but they were truly great artists and childhood poverty should have stopped them from achieving as much as they did. Hornby’s admiration for his subjects is infectious… a zesty tribute to two cultural legends not often spoken about in the same breath.” —Publishers Weekly The worst advice was when I made the mistake of telling a friend about the idea for my first book. My friend said it was a terrible idea and gave me an idea that he thought was better, which was actually incredibly boring. Of course I was frightened because I was halfway through the book, but I ignored him and wrote the book I wanted to write. There’s a scary period where you have to trust your gut even though you have no experience whatsoever and you’ve never published anything before. As for the best advice, I think I give the best advice to young writers. Here’s the advice: a book is around 80,000 words. Not a long book, but a book. If you write 500 words a day, which is really just a couple of long-ish paragraphs, couple of longish paragraphs, then you can complete a book in around 160 working days. That makes the whole process seem less scary. But the addiction to work went on, for both of our central characters. We know that Prince’s favourite thing to do after a show was to play another show. Sometimes these were advertised in advance, sometimes the location spread through word of mouth. I never went to an aftershow show, although I have heard recordings of several of them. I always meant to. I thought I had time. In this joyous and illuminating book, the million-copy bestselling author brings together an unlikely pairing to explore the story of their creative genius

What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods. Think about Harold Brodkey—how terrible that people waited all their lives for his first novel! As far as I know, it’s out of print in the UK. I don't think the wait was worth it for him. I loved Hornby’s discursive delves into both artists, comparing, and sometimes contrasting who they were, where they came from, and the people whose lives they impacted. There’s similar upbringing, their relationships to, and with women, their reactions to superstardom and the perception that they were not being paid what they were worth. All of it really does seem like these two creative people are intertwined in some profound way. No one else had such a relentless work ethic and produced such a staggeringly original and enormous body of work. Where did their magic come from? How did they use it? And, in the end, did it kill them?

One has to be careful here. Yes, he was very young when he started, but so was everybody. Pop music, even great pop music, is made by young people, and the best work is always made in the early part of the career. So was there anything different about Prince? Maybe. Despite being in the top 0.1 % of their profession, both felt that they were being robbed

Hornby is best when restaging the final scenes of his heroes, killed prematurely by their over-exertions Beneath the surface of this fascinating biography, there lies a warm and wise craft book about what it takes to make great art in any century.” — Esquire Despite being in the top 0.1% of their profession, both felt that they were being robbed, and unlike a lot of artists they attempted to do something about it. In Prince’s case, he metaphorically destroyed himself because he was so angry. ‘A breathtaking performer’: Prince in concert, 1984. Photograph: Bill Marino/Sygma/Getty ImagesThe first edition of the serial version of Oliver Twist, published from 1837. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy And second, he was on his own. There was no John or Keith to write songs with. He knew other musicians, and by the time we get to Purple Rain, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman played an important role. But on that first album, made, remember, when he was 20, there was nobody else even to bang a cymbal.

And Hornby’s project — looking for commonalities between apparently disparate entities — is an endeavor we probably all out to be doing much more of in these days when, to quote Prince, “You turn on the telly and every other story / Is tellin’ you somebody died.” Sign o’ the times, indeed. You’re writing almost as much for cinema and TV as you are novels now, from Brooklyn to Love , Nina and State of the Union . In which medium do you feel most at home? Prince performing at Wembley Arena, London, on the Parade tour, 1986. Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty ImagesHORNBY: I mean, there's 12 volumes of letters. And each of those volumes of letters is about the size of one of his novels. He's got the novels as well. Plus, he edited magazine. He wrote plays. He went on tours. He had 10 kids. So it's very hard to imagine that he slept. And this business of writing two books at once, I think if you're a writer, it's just impossible to get your head around. These are big, complicated books full of people and complicated plots. And he kept them somehow apart in his head and moved from one to the other, as far as we know, in the same week. Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman. But time was in short supply, for both of them. As you may remember, neither of them lived to see 60. The first edition of the serial version of Oliver Twist, published from 1837. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Meanwhile Prince is effectively alive, as far as his recording career goes. Postmortem, we have been given special editions of Purple Rain and Sign o’ the Times, a solo demos album called Piano & a Microphone 1983, and an album called Originals . At the same time, a team of archivists have moved his vault from Paisley Park to a climate-controlled Iron Mountain storage facility in Los Angeles. Nobody knows how much material is in the vault, but the estimates range from 5,000 to 8,000 unreleased songs, or a 10-song album every six months for the next 300-400 years. I’ll bet there are some good ones in there.