The private passions of the master storyteller

BOOKS

‘I’m reading Stefan Zweig, author of Beware Of Pity [and inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film The Grand

Budapest Hotel]. He was the biggest-selling author in the world in 1939, went out of print in about 1950, but Pushkin Press have brought him back. He does what I want to do: the combination of writer and storyteller. He just is a genius.’

THEATRE

‘I go to the theatre twice a week, every week. I will have seen 75 per cent of the plays on in London at the moment. The last thing I went to see was Assassins, the Stephen Sondheim musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory. It got four and five star reviews from everybody. It wasn’t for me.’

MONEY

‘I love to invest in theatre. I lost £200,000 on Top Hat but I earn 50 per cent of Grease [right], which is an absolute money-making machine. My son – a banker, very shrewd – said: “Dad, you have invested £7.25 million in 20 years. You have made a quarter of a per cent on your money.” I pointed out that it is an unusual hobby that makes a profit of a quarter of a per cent.’

RUGBY

‘I used to be a referee. Under sevens and eights. Did the parents argue with me? No they did not! I became chairman of my local club, Cambridge. Not the university, the town. I watch the rugby in the afternoon and we go to the theatre in the evening.’

TELEVISION

‘ The West Wing was wonderful. I am currently watching Borgen. I love a really good series. Game Of

Thrones? No. I watched half an hour. I don’t like violence or bad language. I am now watching Newsroom, because it is Aaron Sorkin again.’

I’M A CELEBRITY...

‘They have asked me to do it, several times. They have stopped ringing. It’s not for grown-ups. It must be tempting if someone is right on their bottom and they say, “Here’s quarter of a million if you come to Australia and get into the water with crocodiles.” I understand that. But no.’