Alan Sillitoe was one of the “Angry Young Men” of the 1950s alongside John
Osborne, John Braine and Kingsley Amis.
Sillitoe was born in Nottingham and left school at 14. He worked in the
Raleigh bicycle factory for three years and then as an air traffic control
assistant for a year before joining the RAF in 1946.
He published his first novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, in 1958. It
was made into a film two years later.
Sillitoe's 1959 short-story collection, The Loneliness of the Long Distance
Runner, remains his most celebrated work.
It was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and the title story was adapted for the
big screen. His ninth novel, A Start in Life, has just been republished.
Sillitoe, 80, has also published several collections of poetry, short stories
and plays. He lives with his wife, the poet Ruth Fainlight, in Notting Hill,
west London.
How much money do you have in your wallet?
Never, or rarely, less than £50. I have to verify quite often that there's
that much in my pocket because such an amount is easily spent, especially
since I try to pay as little as possible with credit card.
Do you have any credit cards?
I only have one credit card - a Barclays Visa - but rarely use it, except to
draw cash from a bank when travelling.
I'm old enough not to worry too much about credit cards and things like that.
I like to know what money I have in my account and in my wallet - and as long
as I know that, I know that I'm safe. I pay my card off every month but
often there's nothing on it.
Are you a saver or a spender?
Neither a saver nor a spender. I enjoy spending but when you get to a certain
age there are not many things that you need, or at least that you feel you
need. You even get to need fewer clothes (except for underwear and shirts,
of course). I've never stinted myself on buying books, though, which I
suppose is understandable, considering my occupation. I spend half as much
more on books as I do on travelling.
I have a deposit account which makes an income, a reserve account - a smaller
amount on which I can draw - and, of course, my current account. It's like a
stepladder. I have a private pension with the Society of Authors which I
have put money into over the years, as well as my state pension. I started
drawing money from my Society of Authors pension 10 to 20 years ago.
How much did you earn last year?
There's no regular sum for a freelance writer. It varies a lot year by year.
Last year it was about £25,000. With my two pensions, my earnings from my
books and my freelance writing, I am quite comfortably off.
How much was in your first pay packet?
I went to work at Raleigh bicycle factory at the age of 14 in 1942, and my
first pay packet was £1, 12 shillings and sixpence (£1.62). Calculate that
in modern spending power if you can! Apart from the 2/6d I kept for spending
money, it was a welcome addition to the family income.
Have you ever been really hard up?
I've never been desperately hard up after starting to earn a living. On
leaving the RAF I received a 100% disability pension, having developed
tuberculosis during active service in Malaya. This allowed me and my
girlfriend to live in Spain for several years.
It was the life of Riley but at the same time we were working very hard on our
writing. Anyway, work, what's work? It was a perpetual holiday.
What is the most lucrative work you have ever done? Did you use the fee for
something special?
I suppose the best-paid work I've ever done was to write the script for the
film of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning in 1959. I got £1,500 [about
£25,000 in today's money] and it occupied me for about three months. Even
better, of course, is when the rights are bought for one of your novels,
which is like a gift falling from heaven. The rights for The Loneliness of
the Long Distance Runner came to £6,000. I bought a pair of Barr &
Stroud binoculars, which I'd always wanted.
What property do you own?
We own a flat in Notting Hill Gate, where we've lived since 1970. Property
here was relatively cheap then because the area was somewhat squalid. Its
obviously worth quite a bit now - £800,000 maybe. However, personally I
think that what a property is worth is totally meaningless because it's just
where you live - you can't say much more about it.
The property was leasehold at first and then later on we got the freehold.
It's very difficult now to estimate what we paid originally. What was
£20,000 then might now be £200,000 or £300,000. We also have a small cottage
in Leicestershire which is very good for working. I bought it four years ago
for about £250,000.
Do you invest in shares?
No, I don't. I think it's too risky. It's not morality, probably I'm too
cowardly. I did have a few thousand shares in the 1960s but I sold those. I
made some money but I had a notion that if I'm not careful, I'm going to
lose it. I thought it seemed a good time to sell. I don't remember who the
shares were with, probably all sorts of dangerous things - tobacco,
armaments.
What's better - property or pension?
Property is better than shares, but so is insurance, and the combination just
about takes care of everything - if the system holds up or you're lucky.
Are you financially better off than your parents?
My father, who was a labourer in the 1930s, rarely earned more than £2 or £3 a
week.
The war was a terrible disaster, of course, but we were eating better in the
second world war than we were before.
My father could neither read nor write, and when I handed him my first novel
to look at he turned it round and round in his hands and said, with some
stupefaction: “Bloody hell, Alan, you've written a book! You'll never have
to work again!”
What has been your worst investment? And your best?
I have no idea really. I'm one of those people who as long as I have a roof
over my head, clothes on my back and food on the table I don't care about
the rest of it. We've never been people to spend a lot because we don't come
from that high-flying background.
My best investment has been my dedication to my work - that's of more value
than anything, to tell you the truth.
What aspect of our taxation system would you change?
I've never objected to paying taxes, but the whole concept of Vat seemed to me
senseless and tyrannical when it first came in.
What is your financial priority?
My financial priority was never to have a mortgage, never to be in debt. I was
brought up to never owe anyone anything and I've more or less followed that
as much as I possibly could.
I think borrowing is inadvisable but people don't think that these days. I
just don't agree with it. People are lent money whether they want it or not
- it's ridiculous.
Do you have a money weakness?
Books, obviously, or radios. Sometimes, I pick up a radio I like the look of
and listen to strange French stations.
What is the most
extravagant thing you have ever bought?
The most extravagant items have been cars. I have always enjoyed long-distance
driving. I once bought an AR-88 Radio Corporation of America communications
receiver for £85, the model I used as a wireless operator in Malaya. Morse
code wireless interception has always been one of my pastimes - a therapy,
you might say.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money?
A writer should pay more attention to the work than to making money, but he is
doubly lucky when successful in both, as I have been.
