Intrusions and the like

By Naguib Mahfouz

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Meeting Nadine Gordimer recently, the telephone rang and I was told there was an American journalist at the door who wondered if he might be present at this encounter of two Nobel laureates.

I hadn't invited anyone, nor had Gordimer. In fact she said the BBC had asked if they could record the event but she had refused, fearing it would mean the meeting would be less spontaneous. So how did this journalist get to know?

"Some people," Gordimer said, "assume writers are at their beck and call. They knock on our doors and pester us. Businessmen are surrounded by secretaries to ensure no one can get to them. Yet people still expect us to write. And then, if it takes us a little longer than usual to publish something, they demand to know what we have been doing."

There was a time when people first discovered my address when there would be many knocks on the door. Usually it would be a passer- by who wanted to have their photograph taken with me as a keepsake. But that was in the past. Nowadays my health doesn't allow it.

Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.