funny and melancholy by turns, the author of the celebrated series of novels about patrick melrose, is back on his favourite territory, dealing with a life touched and changed by tragedy. welcome. the inspiration for this story, the start of the novel in a way, was the idea that you should take the king lear story and do something with it. now, is it easy to leave the thought of that fundamental story behind, and take off on your own? at first, i suffered from a "don't mess with the bard" angst, because i was in the face of a sort of monument of world literature, but i was asked to be inspired by shakespeare, not to be intimidated by him, and it's impossible not to be inspired by shakespeare. anyone writing in english is inspired by shakespeare. and in this case, a particular pretext in king lear, i found that quite soon i left the play behind, and became involved in the novel, and it was like all my novels, i wanted to write the next sentence and the next scene. and you've got a central character, dunbar himself, who is a media mogul, an immensely powerful man, who sees everything sli

funny and melancholy by turns, the author of the celebrated series of novels about patrick melrose, iserritory, dealing with a life touched and changed by tragedy. welcome. the inspiration for this story, the start of the novel in a way, was the idea that you should take the king lear story and do something with it. now, is it easy to leave the thought of that fundamental story behind, and take off on your own? at first, i suffered from a "don't mess with the bard" angst, because i was in the face of a sort of monument of world literature, but i was asked to be inspired by shakespeare, not to be intimidated by him, and it's impossible not to be inspired by shakespeare. anyone writing in english is inspired by shakespeare. and in this case, a particular pretext in king lear, i found that quite soon i left the play behind, and became involved in the novel, and it was like all my novels, i wanted to write the next sentence and the next scene. and you've got a central character, dunbar himself, who is a media mogul, an immensely powerful man, who sees everything slipping away. i mean, his

funny and melancholy by turns, the author of the celebrated series of novels about patrick melrose, ished and changed by tragedy. welcome. the inspiration for this story, the start of the novel in a way, was the idea that you should take the king lear story and do something with it. now, is it easy to leave the thought of that fundamental story behind, and take off on your own? at first, i suffered from a "don't mess with the bard" angst, because i was in the face of a sort of monument of world literature,

apple has ear pods, they didn't have them when we were shooting this but this last thing i did patrick melroseovels i could actually listen to the pop music of the 60s or whatever i needed to listen to to actually help me inform the scene and is completely hidden by your hair, there's times you can do that, it's great especially to have an accessent to hear it or a music of the period whatever influences you. >> was there something particular about that period that you liked, wished you could have experienced at the level they experienced it -- there are periods of time if i could go back in time i'd like to go back and check certain. >> which ones? >> i was born in the mid 60s but i was such a baby i feel sometimes i missed out on so much by not being of age in the 60s to see so much happen. >> oh, so much change, yeah, yeah. >> yeah. >> i'm okay. >> no back to the future for you. >> when i was younger i was in love with fitzgerald and wanted to live in that period but not so much. you realize when you get older how much change happens within your own lifetime and it's ha to imagine going bac