Modern torchbearer

Many writers guard their works-in-progress, paranoid about intellectual theft, afraid that premature exposure might result in an imaginative drought.

Many writers guard their works-in-progress, paranoid about intellectual theft, afraid that premature exposure might result in an imaginative drought. David Mitchell suffers from no such fears.

Halfway through our meeting, he reaches for the rucksack propped against the hotel bar and takes out his notebook - a Moleskine, the famous brand beloved of Ernest Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin.

He turns to a page divided into six squares, each filled with neat black words. ...