Mad, Bad and Dangerous?

'A family into which a writer is born is a ruined family. That, or words to that effect is something Philip Roth said many years ago ... It captured mercilessly the problem of being ... a writer. Writing is about betrayal. Betrayal is what writers do'. The pilot shoved Minette Marin's column in the Times under my nose as I was working the other day. A not too subtle hint? Marin was writing with reference to the recent brouhaha surrounding Julie Myerson's 'The Lost Child' (she's a UK writer who graphically documented her son's drug addiction). The article concluded to throw out an adolescent, and then to write a novel about it 'is a betrayal not just of love ... but of motherhood itself'. Myerson called writing the book 'a guilty impulse'. The words 'dirty laundry' and 'public' come to mind. The press reactions have been vitriolic - there's even a hilarious Twitter thread by Julie MeMeSon.

It comes back to that splinter of ice we writers are supposed to have in our hearts. So what do you think? What's off limits for writers? If you've been kind enough to hang around here for a while you already know my views - as a reader I have no interest in sleb books or the rash of vile exploitative abuse memoirs. As a writer my work is, (of course) grounded in my experience - but it comes down to the clause you seem to see less these days - 'these characters are not based on real people'. I have no interest in pimping my family or friends, but surely every writer fictionalises their own experience? Today's video clips from 'Postcards from the Edge' - the 'semi-autobiographical' novel by Carrie Fisher are a case in point. I loved the book - and the film; it was a great story, well written, but do you think knowing Fisher's background gave the whole thing an extra frisson?

Marin concluded 'Writers may not always be wreckers, but I think people should be very wary of them. Of us'. Do you feel dangerous? I get some fabulous gossip from the cockpit (lately the pilot's flown with Gordon Ramsay's brother-in-law, Fred 'Slasher' RBS's wife's best friend's husband, and a captain with some very juicy stories about a certain airline boss). I'm saving them up for a future novel but have no interest in exposing these people in real life. Now if I could just get the pilot to land on the Hudson we'd be laughing (good old Cap'n Sully's $3.2m book deal) ...

TODAY'S PROMPT: What do you think of the writers you've met and worked with? Continuing the 'humility of genius' theme, I was researching an article about big book deals for the Bookseller this weekend and mailed a query to Audrey Niffenegger. Amazingly she replied the same day. This professionalism, helpfulness and simple good manners are - to me at least - the hallmark of successful writers. Maybe there's a reason for their success beyond being able to write well. Thinking back everyone I've asked for advice over the years from A S Byatt to George Melly have been incredibly kind and helpful. Maybe I've just been lucky - but I know I'd do the same to try and help someone just starting out. Today, why not have a think about the media's attitude to writers and your own. Are we all 'mad, bad and dangerous'? Do we betray confidence and trust? Or are we simply professional people making sense of the world around us in the most creative way we know how?