>> today, president obama is hosting european union leaders. he is expected to focus on the european debt crisis and the middle east. today on c-span, a couple of programs on deficit reduction with remarks by the former national intelligence director dennis blair on potential defense budget cuts that they then will be live it 12:15 p.m. on eastern -- eastern on c-span. also in member of the joint death as it committee on the committee's inability to reach a agreement on reductions and what that could mean for the future of the country. that is live at 2:00 p.m. eastern. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> this week on "q and a," simon

winchester discusses his books, including the new paperback "atlantic." >> i am looking at a june article from the "daily beast," with the headline, "why i am becoming an american." >> it made a lot of sense. it was emotional. i have lived here for so long. it was such a pain. you could quite easily be thrown out for some transgression. i decidedi would take all the necessary steps. there is a 10-question an exam.

perhaps i got one of those questions wrong. i have a friend who is up for citizenship. i said i got one of the questions wrong and she saidnot the one about what color as the white house. i saidi might be a full confessing no. this to you, but the american national anthem. i blurted out "america the beautiful." the immigration office that was not. >> how would you have wanted this exam? >> i will not turn the table on you. but one question is, what is-- the rule of law? according to the little booklet that you get is that everyone is equal under the law. i got nine out of the 10.

i got that right. i was worried. >> when did you first come here? >> i came here in 1963. i would have been 18, counting on 19. i had a girlfriend in montreal. i took a year off between school and university. i came over here on the empress of britain which went fromthis is going to liverpool and montreal. i hitchhiked to vancouver. i have been obsessed with america for years because in the 1950's, on the eve of going to new york, my mother and i, i said i would visit america. my father got cold feet. we were disappointed.

i had hitchhiked to vancouver. i entered america under the peace march in blaine, washington. the first sign that i saw after getting to the united states was -- it is illegal to pitch -- pick up hitchhikers. i thought that's great. a chap in a convertible picked me up andi had a union jack on the back of my bag. he took me to bellinghamhe took me to seattle. that entire trip, 36,000 -- i had spent 9 months hitchhiking. i entered with 200 u.s. dollar bills. when i left,i had 182 left. it cost me $18. people were so kind. so i left america thinking that this is a beautiful country, i

got to meeting john carson and john f. kennedy, opening a loch on the st. lawrence seaway. people are hospitable and generous, unlike europe. >> dinner with kirk douglas, coffee with john carson. horse riding with harold stassen. how did you do this? >> i went to topeka, to an institute for the mentally unwell. and they said, the other famous person who lives here. he said harold stassen is here. he is in nice and you should go see him. he must have been in his 80s. fit as a fiddle. he asked if i rode horses. he said, come horseback riding with me. he talked about running against roosevelt and he saidit was like jumping on the express train.

he was a marvelous man. >> and what about coffee with johnny carson? -- >> the tonight show was taped in burbank and the tapes were sent overnight. the tapes were flown back overnight to be broadcast from new york. it was arcane and aruba goldberger ini think that's how it was done. the fellow who took them every night -- he said that i should meet johnny carson. he took a brief shine to this young school boy. he did not have me on the show but he said it -- , and have a cup of coffee. >> what was the reason -- you were by yourself. >> yes i was. >>where did you get this wanderlust? -- >> i am not entirely certain. my parents did not travel a

great deal. and all went back to this deep disappointment. i sat next to this boy in school whose father built trains and lived in america. i remembered i was disappointed that our father did not take us to america. he lived in connecticut and he would come back from the holidays and show me pictures -- it sounds ridiculous, but the merritt parkway. i thought this was the most beautiful highway i had ever seen. the vision of this endless, beautiful roads --i knew about things like the grant -- grand canyon, but i thought, this is where i wanted to go. i had no wanderlust, but going from montreal, this is north of

lake superior. you get on the 401 andthis is incredibly romantic. and people are astonishingly kind. in canada. every journey begins with the first step. you take that first step in north america andyou are rewarded by everything that you meet. it was here that the wanderlust was born. >> i remember you in that chair 15 years ago. the professor and the madman. i read thatthis is what led to you being a success. >> i think the show was helpful. thank you. up to that point,the books had done commercially, very badly. i got politely nice reviews

butthe progress from the typewriter was seamless. the appearance in a bookstore was like a gaudy irrelevance. it was a relevance but the professor, for some reason, this was a very difficult story to tell. but it wasn't that difficult to write. it took six weeks. to bore you at great length buti was in the arctic, doing research for the next book, because this had been published in england. there were polite reviews, not particularly selling well. i was up in the arctic, with an australian friend of mine. in this particular part of the world, you are not allowed to take a rifle were terrorized -- you must take a radio.

if you can imagine,we are in the middle of nowhere. and suddenly, out there is mr. winchester. -- on the radio. they said, are you near a telephone, and i said i am it in the middle of absolutely nowhere. they said that there is someone in new york to needs to speak to you. there is a geological field campthis was about a three days march if i turned -- and to call long story short, the publicist said that i had to go back to new york, quickly. this was someone from the new york times. harper-collins paid for the plane and i met this very nice man, who was a theater critic and then -- he wrote "at lunch with."

we had lunch andwe talked about "the professor and the madman." i flew back to the arctic. i came back to new york having finished the ex the decision -- exposition and said tothe publicists lady asked what this was about. when the new york times says jump, you say "how high." the lunch went well. the piece would be in the times and we hope it will be on the front page of the arts section. every monday in june and july and august -- she said, this will be at the front of the arts section. -- at the end of august. this is wonderful and he loved the book, this is the good news, but the bad news is that next monday, it is labor day. no one is going to purchase 'the new york times."

that might normally have been true but labor day, 1998 in new yorkit rained from dusk until dawn, and they had nothing to do. they didn't go out to barnes and noble. they went to amazon. that nightit got to number one. what great fortune was that? and ever since then, the books have done better than before. >> why did she not just talk to him on the phone? -- why didn't you talk to the guy on the phone? >> it is extremely expensive. and to go back to that call -- with the publicist, she said, we need you to get to new york. >> i said i am thousands of miles away but she said, we really need you. i said i was not near an airport butthe landing strip for these

geologist's get in and out, this will cost. she said call for one. >> the first and only time in my life -- that i whistled a pipeline. >> do you know how many professors -- have sold? >> jane freedman, the ceo of harper, they ordered 10,000 to be printed. they had no belief, reasonable belief that a book about lexigography would sell. it is in the low millions. >> you are still living off it? >> you could say. to be realistic,the book business -- i am happy i did not buy a porsche.

nowadays, when you are a writer,it is a highwire existence. >> give us a minute synopsis so they can wonder what is "professor and the madman?" can they still buy it? >> it is w.c. miner, who came from new haven and was a military doctor during the civil war. something unpleasant happened to him. he became seriously mad. his parents knew john ruskin. this is in the 1870's. he did not get better at all and he shot someone dead. an irishman. he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. he was in a huge limit asylum, -- limit asylum. -- lunatic asylum are and he

befriended, incredibly, the widow of the man that he had shot dead. she would bring books and he found -- left in by the bookseller, a brochure that had been put out by james murray, of the english dictionary that was being constructed, calling for volunteers with time on their hands. and who were able to read the books with a view to finding the context in which they were used. w.c. miner, having plenty of time on his hands said that he could do this. he didanonymously for many years, he did not give away the idea that he was a lunatic and a murderer. he was the biggest contributor to the oxford english dictionary. there is this awoke -- wonderful momentand when james murray,

frustrated that this man would never come to any of the banquets, said that if he will not come to me i will go to him. he took a train -- to where the asylum as that. -- was at. the horse-drawn carriage came and picked him up. there was this huge mansion and he was shown to a man who was sitting in a book lounge, and he said, good afternoon. i am james murray. you are w.c. miner. he said, i am not. i am the superintendant of the lunatic asylum. he is mad, a murderer, and an american. and they became the best of friends. >> we found this. on your web site,some still

pictures and audio. let's watch. >> this is simon winchester. i am wandering the united states, researching a new book. i have recall the number of audio postcards. i am in the middle of the missouri river in west montana, one of the most remarkable pieces of geography and history in the entire united states. this is simon winchester in a remote part of northwestern colorado. looking north towards, i can see the badlands of south dakota. this is mountainous and eroded. >> that is all we found. did you do more than this?

>> i will be posting another one on lonely strode in america, route 57 in nevada. -- lonely as a road and america, route 57 in nevada. there are only two of them. >> what is this leading to? >> this goes partly back to my publicist who said that if you have a web site, the thing about websites is that you forget about them unless you have someone who is looking at this. i try to refresh this every sunday putting a word of the week into this. and i carry a reasonably decent tape recorder with me. and my wife, she has become a rather good photographer. we thought it would be a good idea to record low post cards. -- a little postcards with audioand as i wander around on this trip, to act as a teaser, and interest people in the book's i am trying to write, --

i will try to do some more. >> i am looking at tweets. this is day one of ike 1999 expedition. -- 1919 exposition -- expeditionleft zero mile marker, in gettysburg, then shanksville, then ohio. rain. day one of -- >> it rained a great deal. on this specific trip, this was to follow the route that the young captain eisenhower took in 1919. the american army was doing some planning in world war one about what would happen if america was invaded and how quickly we could get troops from

the base in the south to the west. railways only have a certain amount of capacity. what about the road to? there was a military convoy about 3 miles long, and this went north to gettysburg. and that followed the lincoln highway. young eisenhower was given a temporary rank of colonel. he went as an observer andhe kept a diary that i have printed out, and we fall of the trip that when -- this one from pennsylvania into ohio, indiana, and my wife and i went the whole way. what we wanted to do was to camp. we took a tent and sleeping bags, the first few days -- it was rather grizzly.

but thereafter, we were camping. it was absolutely fascinatingand 20 days later, we were in lincoln park in san francisco. the equivalent concrete marker, which is not as grand as the white house, that said that this was the end of the expedition. they took 38 days and we took 18, we were in a land rover. >> i got on the web site and wrote down -- all the details on exactly how many people were on this trip. can you remember? >> it was quite big, about 250. the convoy was 3 miles long and there were all manner of vehicles, ambulances and cooking, they had a catalog of disasters everyday.

things were breaking down and the cars were falling off the road. it seemed they were bent every day, getting people out of ditches. it was reasonable up to a council bluffs, iowa. and after that there were essentially no roads. until you get to lake tahoe in california. for these vehicles it was almost impossible. and when he wrote his report, about the asiatic enemy, it would take 58 days and we have lost. in his mind, he decided we would have to have a decent road system, and when he saw the german autobahn system, he said

that america would have to have this system. the idea was planted in 1919 when he did this for himself. >> this book, and the timetable -- -- what is the timetable? >> what i am trying to do, i am in that position where i have done most of the trips and this is so massive, organizing everything. what i am trying to do is partly a celebration, but also to say, what united this country together? let's follow all the major trips, and there was a geologist named clarence king

did the first survey of the west. in the 1860's. there was theodore, who was essentially the architect of the transcontinental railroad and the west. moss -- the people behind the transcontinental telegraph system. washington greeley, who did the same thing in alaska. and fast forwarding to the interstate highway system and possibly, -- in this romantic to look at the internet backbone today. these expeditions, you had to be very brave to be involved. even the building of the interstates,there was macdonald, the real architect, who was something of the hero out in the '40's and '50's. he was out there ploting of the

routeswhat were the interstate should go in nevada and new mexico. these are the men who united states. and we will be answering the question, are the states as united as the visionaries hoped that they might be? this makes it a little bit more political. there is another thing --if this does not sound too artificial, obsessed with surely anderson, and his portrait of "grotesques." the people who become somewhat odd in their search for truth. all of these people were. clarenceking being the perfect example of a very strange man. the yale-educated, east-coast white man, who acted -- he was the leader of the first united states geological survey.

as you probably know,he had a passion for black women, and created "james todd." he married a black woman in baltimore. he had a number of children by her andhe would say -- i have to catch the sunset limited. all he would do is go to the geological survey, and say, "that was quite an expedition." he didn't confess to his wife until year before he died. there are lots of magical persons in this story. >> is there a number on the lincoln highway? >> this is about 230 and become -- it is a u.s. 30 strange on the other side of salt lake city. >> what was the best and worst thing you saw on this trip? united states.

>> the best thing has to be the scenery. the road goes past dinosaur national monument in colorado and utah. i had never been to it. this was a new one andto drive into this park, off of the main road, and thank heavens we have a land rover. " miles, switchback, down to the green river. -- 12 miles,not far from where the one-armed explorer launched into his expedition, with a sensational campground. there is a ranger who comes once a week to make certain that the fire would is there. the great powers of sandstone, in the middle of the wilderness and a lot of extraordinary

wildlife. and that was magicaland if you go on a lewis and clark trip, the most depressing thing i saw on one particular trip was the huge agricultural industry plants that you see along the columbia river. with the french fries are made in idaho. these gigantic factories and these huge butchering plants, with the feed lots and the cattle. agricultural business --when i first came here in the 70's, i stayed with some farmers. -- and the '60s. this was in iowa. they taught me how to drive the columbine harvester. i had heard over the years that they had disappeared. i looked them up during the

eisenhower trip. i found them. they are still there. they are not elderly but they are no longer young. you have a quarter section which was perfect to make a living for himself and his family. but now the economics of farming had completely changed. you cannot make money unless you have thousands of acres. there is nothing romantic about farming anymore. i was happy that they were still there. i looked back to a different time when farming was a more gentle pursuit. >> you had gone through a rough patch with two failed marriages. and now you talk about a wife. how did this happen? >> this happened in washington.

she was a producer at npr. she was a producer on "talk of the nation." this is a live radio program. i had seen her name and for some reason -- i thought she was a fiercly intelligent gray- haired -- she is not young. i did not want to be rude to her. i thought she would be something like that. but then one day i was supposed to be on her show, and i thought, there is no way -- i said that i was afraid i could not be on the show today. because i had a sore throat. and she rang up, and we had never spoken before.

she said she could not lose a guest. she said you sound fine. she was so persuasive and so nice, i thought that i had to meet her. a few months later, i was on her show in san francisco, where they were doing a live feed on the anniversary of the san francisco earthquake. this was on the 18th of april, 2006. i was in san francisco, and there was this adorable lady, with such command of the audience. i tease her to this day. she is giving instructions on how to applaud, and then she did this thing -- when i went back she said, be quiet.

i thought not only what it wanted to meet this woman but i wanted to take her outand so, we met about a week. later in washington, one thing led to her mother. >> what year did you get married? >> we were engaged on my birthday, in 2006. after we first met in april. and we got married on her birthday. this was january 2007. >> it is that a japanese name? >>she is born here and speaks fluent japanese. her parents in a chain of stores in new york. the umbrellas that you put in drinks -- there were very successful eleven stores. and there was an implosion and they don't do this anymore.

>> where do you live? >> 17th street in manhattan. most of the time,we have a little farm in massachusetts. this is a bit of the acreage, most of it forest. i have been pressing cider this year. we have chickens, goose, and bees. the one thing i have to do is get the honey. before the bears do. i felt last year but this yeari put an electric fence around the beehive. >> it surprised me, when you were here 15 years ago, this was your first television interview? >> i also think it was probably one of the very first -- i must have been on news shows talking about northern ireland. >> you did radio?

>>i produced a television program about books, called "footnotes" on bbc 2. i am for getting this because this was all taped. there was one life program, the -- live program, the award -- of the book prize in london. that must of been 1983. >> like the pulitzer. >> it was a disaster. i wore a dinner jacket and i look like a collection agent from the mafia. and there was john fuller -- i asked about the state of the english novel. the camera cut back to me. but critics,they said, winchester wore the expression of a man who has peed down the leg of his dinner jacket.

and the band a man who won it which wasmichael kay tripped over one of the wires and fell on his face. in solidarity. >> here you are. 15 years ago on this program -- >> this is the only book i have written the did not require any travel. it seems possible and probable, that this actually got the number one in england. this will be my most successful book. they say, travel writing is not the genre you should write. maybe you should look for new wife and settle down. and this appeals to me. >> there you have it. >> that is sort of what i do nowadays. >> in a book called "the alice behind wonderland," i counted 29

books. -- 21 books. you had more before that? >> i am sorry to disappoint you. i think that is it. >> the one that is on top here, "atlantic: the biography of the ocean." i understand that the paperback is out now. >> yes. in the beginning of november. >> what led to this book? one of the statistics in your book is that something like the ocean has been around for 170 million years. why did you find interest in this? >> i sort of knew how the ocean was formed. as a geologist. and people who are in the business of plate techtonics know when the ocean will cease to be.

i did not need a pick -- need to do before it ceased to be butit will be 100 million years before it disappears. i grew up by the atlantic. i crossed this and it occurred to me one crosses it so easy, some people do anyway, we have come to disregard this. this is merely an expense of distance. it is just a nuisance that keeps usgetting to new york as quickly as we would like. and i thought, what i knew about this, this was a romantic and beautiful ocean, and also the most important of the world's oceans. you could make a case that the mediterranean was the inland sea of classical civilization. we can rightly say thatso much has happened in history that the atlantic is a part of modern western civilization.

let's take a look at it. once again, structure -- how we gather all of this information about a great body of water and making this digestible, in a way that does not look like an encyclopedia. one day, after having signed the contract but not being sure how i would do this, i was traveling back from london to new york and i had my head -- my favorite poetry anthology. it's by david owen,a nice, sensitive man who loves poetry. he had organized them, and the book was called, "seven ages." he organized them according to the seven ages of man. this starts with poetry relating to the schoolboy and the lover and soldier, the old

man, return to childhood. i said, i could use this. shakespeare never went to the atlantic. but the template, everything i knew about this could be part of the seven categories. the lover would be the romantic relationship. , the paintingsmendelson. ,the architecture of new york and liverpool. nobody has said how ludicrous it was to use shakespeare as the template but this seems to work. >> which of these 21 books, is professor still the number-one seller?

>> every time that there is a volcano, i think one is about to erupt in bolivia. krakatau up -- -- crack athis does very well. tell whati have never had a number one bestseller in america. number two was as high as the professor was on the new york times list. >> what is your feeling about what will sell? >> yoon not have a sense, books -- you don't derive a sense on books on lexicography or plate tectonics. but what encourages me, particularly, and this is very different, in britain, the best-seller lists are dominated by celebrity memoirs. david beckham and film stars. in america, there is a lot of nonsense on the list, but

american readers seem to love the big words, they seem to like serious nonfiction. they don't mind people being serious. in great britain, this comes up in julian barnes's new book. they talk about the embarrassment that writers feel about being serious. -- english writers. in america, they like this if this is packaged in a digestible form. this is why a book on lexicography would sell more than 10,000 copies. except in that particular casethis is a story about redemption and the unsung hero being plucked from redemption. i think in short, americans like serious writing.

i find this encouraging. >> you have appeared on the in- depth program in 2004. here is a clip from that. >> at the end of the day, to read this out loud, standing up and claiming -- with amateur poetry, convinces me whether i can feel myself getting flat and boring. if i make myself board reading thus it will happen to the reader. i would give a piece of advice that i give to my students. this is a simple, practical reality. stand up and read what you have written aif it does not sound right when and you read this -- >> are you still doing this? >> i stand up, if this makes me board, you say that this is

turgid. i am glad i take my own advice. >> think if we are in a business class. the business of what you do. looking back over your career, how do you make money? is it obvious? a lot of writers have been here ayou sound like you have sold a and lot of books and are making money off of them. is this how you are making money? are there other ways? >> i came from a very ordinary middle-class family. in 19 -- when was this? i was in hong kong and i realized -- i was a freelance journalist. i was running out of money and

people -- they would send me to pakistan or to cover the war, with younger and more attractive looking people. and suddenly, the journalistic career was beginning to nosedive. i could have been a pipe-sucking pundit. but i wanted to be out there. my books were not selling at all. i had written this book on the yangtze river, which did not sell any copies. i have a real problem, will let go to public relations or something like that? and then, suddenly, the possibility of actually making a living out of writing suddenly occurred.

i could have been a one had wandered by read this book called"the map that changed the world," was about a geologist, who became the founder of modern geology. that "did terribly well soi kept believing that this would stop sooner or later. not to go buy jaguar motorcars. i could possibly make a living writing. many people to not do this. the successful writers, they have day jobs usually teaching. this is very much a high wire act. these days,there is no disguising the fact that book sales are going down, advances are going down, how long can this be sustained?

i am looking for alternate avenues. i am interested in new technology. and although i am writing this american book, this sounds rather bizarre, but the huge collection of skulls -- i think there is a chance that this will sell very well. when it comes out later this year. in which case, this is another avenue of making a living. >> why would you want an app on skulls? >> the people who are making this, they sold this -- for 1495. a quarter million of them so far.

and the revenue split is 70%. and similarly, with the solar system, the use a strange technology. later but itto you iswith the elements or the planets or the skulls, they can be manipulated if found on the screen. i think every child is fascinated with the educational tools, and this is remarkable because this is anatomically correct, and i sound like a salesman. i will not go down fighting, if you like, but there are other ways to get into the new world and not just let the waters close over me. >> this is for money? is this lucrative? -- have you done misspeaking? >> it isn't bd. sometimes you find, that there are a lot of financial institutions, i believe they do

not listen, they don't care unless this is al gore were bill clinton or someone like this. this -- i was doing a benefit in houston last week. it was wonderful because they listened and they love to the story and you feel that you are doing some good. the printing industry, and taking some cash in hand. >> in 2005 we had you on camera in san francisco. >> i have this envelope on the table, and this was a check -- this is a letter that says, from anonymous. you claim that the earthquake was in daly city. where is your evidence?

james morris had sexual reassignment surgery in morrocco. a perfect guru for someone speaking in san francisco. if geologists can tell us an eartquake is coming, great. tell me as soon as you know. otherwise, shut up. >> i have never heard of this as a sexual reassignment. >> i didn't get that. i may have told you, jan was my guru. i was living and working in uganda. in 1966 or 1967. there was a book called "coronation everest." written by james morris.

this was the expedition for the summit of mount everest. and this was amazingly exciting. book. he had never climbed anything higher than a welsh hill. with six ropes, he is at 25,000 feet. this expedition succeeds. and using flags, he gets the news of the success back to london, to be published on the second -- morning of june, when the new queen was crowned. in 1953. a british expedition had conquered the world's highest mountain. and when i heard about this account, i thought, i am

hopeless geologist. this sounds like it has the makings of a career -- i would be much happier rather than walking around the world with a bottle of sulfuric acid. i wrote to james and said, i am the 21-year-old geologist. can i be you? most of the time they would ignore this but he did not. he wrote a kind letter back and saidthe day that you get this letter, the day that you get this, give up your job as a geologist. i left that afternoon. everyone was saying, now that -- we are glad that he stopped by the we are glad that you left.

every newspaper in the land was wanting to record the. six months later i did get a job at a paper. i wrote to james and againyou could hear the gulp. andyou took my advice? he said, three pieces of advice. you will never make much money, but you'll never lose your sense of wonder. he will travel all over and be tempted to be cynical or jaded, don't. and don't bother to learn shorthand. every month, send me the clippings. i will take them to a halfway decent writer. that went on for years. we never met until 1974. i was living here in washington. we covered the resignation of richard nixon, and the apology from gerald ford.

that day i was covering evil to enable -- evil knievel. the woman that i was climbing in norse -- north wales with, she said -- he is ridiculous and you have to ring him up. i was terrified. he said, simon, i thought that you were in washington. where are you mad? i said, i am 3 miles away. he came down from the hills and we went to his house. when he opened the door, he had changed into a woman. it was most extraordinary. he was dressed ina skirt and handkerchief. and all the accouterments of womanhood.

he was going the next week to have the reassignment surgery and then we dead -- and then we read a book togetherwe have been the best of and friends, -- and she stayed with us in new york. she is now 85, i think. >> the next book -- when will that be out? >> this will be published in 200013. >> and the app will be out for thanksgiving this year. we have the issues related to damien hearst, for the love of god. the most expensive artwork in the world. >> did you learn anything as he traveled the united states?

how many days total was it? >> this was about 25 days. on the eisenhower trip. >> did you learn anything about the political mood, something we have not heard about? >> deliberately on the way back, i came to the state of texas. the distance from washington, the gulf is amazing. not wishing to be part of the united states is strong in west texas. they feel they should be independent. and arrange their own defense. did not feel at one with the people in washington. a similar expression in mississippi but for different reasons, largely racial.

the civil war has not been forgotten. a fractious mood. >> do you have any children? >> three boys. one of them was in portland, and is the global ambassador for -- tanker rates gen. a son who is staying to be the editor of the post, and with my youngest son, he has two grandchildren. and he is running a group of restaurants in london. >> putting aside the fact you are now an american, if you had to choose the best place you have been in all of these travels, what would you choose? >> i would go to the west coast of scotland.

it is where i wrote "the map that changed the world." i was on a little islandif i stood on my desk, i could and see the headland where george orwell wrote 1984. my homage to him is to call it barn hill farm. there is no place more beautiful than the west coast of scotland. >> is there any feeling from the former british -- are you still a british citizen? >> when i was on the tour for the alice behind wonderland, i was told i was a traitor, and had stopped being a brit. i don't sell as well in britain. in britain, there is a curled lip.

i sell well in australia and new zealand but in britain there is the attitude of"how dare you go to the other side." it bothers me slightly>> i have the hardback copy of "the atlantic." our guest was simon winchester. thank you very much for visiting. >> thank you very much. >> for a dvd copy, go to 1877- 7726. for free transcripts, go to qanda.org. also available as c-span podcasts.

>> upcoming guests include carl colby, "the man nobody new." and marsha anderson discusses her career as the first african- american two-star general. >> this morning, we will take your questions and comments. after that, the former national intelligence director talks about military readiness and potential budget cuts and later, the american enterprise institute hosts a conference on the joint chavis said reduction committee to reach an agreement. this morning a "washington journal," a look at the future of health care legislation after