I recently finished writing a hybrid memoir made up of autobiographical recollections, analyses and commentary in a literary style that reflects the bathos — a fluctuation between something verging on sublime to creeping mediocrity — that I have come to recognise in my writing.

What I found most astounding, almost two months after submitting the final draft of the manuscript (the book is now on the shelves of stores around the country) is a clearer understanding from the finished product. I haven’t read the book; I usually don’t read my own writing .....