As many of you will know, Neil Gaiman has been attending the Edinburgh Book Festival. As part of the entertainment he was interviewed on stage by the critic, John Mullan, who has something of a track record of looking down his nose at SF&F. The event was podcast by The Guardian. How did it go?

I was amused at the beginning to hear Claire Armistead introduce Neil as someone who had become very popular in the USA, as if it was necessary to excuse featuring a writer who was unknown here in the UK. However, Mullan very wisely stuck to letting Neil talk, which is something Neil does very well. There is one section in the middle where Neil talks about the relationship between fantasy and reality, but unless the podcast has been cleverly edited it doesn’t appear to have been in response to an attack from Mullan.

If you listen to the podcast you can hear Neil talk about the origins of American Gods, and about his hopes for the planned TV series. He does not mention that the book won a Hugo, or how he reacted at the time, which is probably just as well. In addition he talks about which writer he thinks wrote rather too much, and which one he wishes would write more. Enjoy.