Tom Holland: commitment

Transcript context

…Three final questions. First, what is your most unusual successful work habit? [laughs] My most unusual successful work habit. When I write history, I will go to libraries. I will immerse myself in academic texts, academic study. I will read texts and books that are often very demanding, written in very academic prose. But I write for the general audience, and there are times where I feel that I have to emancipate myself from that. I remember when I was writing my first book, Rubicon, which was about the collapse of the Roman Republic, the great warlords of the late Republic — Pompey, Caesar, Crassus. [laughs] I would come back from the library, and I’d sometimes feel covered in the dust of the libraries in which I’d been sitting. Before starting work, I would play Ennio Morricone’s music from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as I was making myself a cup of tea. I would particularly play two tracks. One is “The Ecstasy of Gold,” where Tuco, the ugly, is running around the cemetery trying to find a grave where supposedly gold has been buried. I would always play that when I was writing about Crassus, who is the great billionaire. Then when I was writing about the Triumvirate, the standoff between the great warlords, I would play the brilliant music at the end of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, when there’s a seven-minute shoot-off between the good, the bad and the ugly. I would always feel better going up to work, having listened to that. From that point on, I’ve always tried to find pieces of music that will keep me in the mood of the world in which I’m writing about, but will also remind me that I’m writing for people who may know nothing about it, and I have to make it interesting and accessible. Next, what is your favorite movie?…

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