It’s the second evening of a writing masterclass, and Alexandra Pringle and I are sitting by a pool in Jane Tamasna, talking under a star-filled African sky. When we talk about the strange alchemy that turns drafts into literature, soft light pools around the palm trees and the slight desert coolness is felt.
Pringle, the former editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury, has spent her entire life nurturing writers: as a publisher, as a literary agent and now A writing coach and mentor, teaching from his Chelsea houseboat in London and here in Morocco.
Here are edited excerpts of our conversation.
Were you always a reader?
I learned to read very late, in fact, last in my class.
My mother used to say, “Don’t you want to learn to read?” And I will not say. Then suddenly it happened, and it was the great gift of my life.
I became obsessed. I used to go down to the local library alone, this was London when children still roamed, and pick up books by chance: Patricia Lynch’s turf-cutter’s donkeylove all the classics a little Princess, secret garden, cs lewis, little Womenand rare objects such as an old Victorian copy of Louisa May Alcott an old fashioned girl Which I found in a shop and liked it very much. I also read my brothers’ “boys” booksJennings, Just William. My mother sent me to bed very early, so I read under the covers by torchlight.
I failed in school because I was too busy studying, but the truth is, I was preparing for the rest of my life.
Were your parents readers? How did they shape your literary tastes?
Both were passionate readers. My father taught English in an all-boys school and gave me pride and Prejudice At 11, then the entire Jane Austen, then the more obscure Thomas Hardy novels, Two on a Tower, The Trumpet-Major, The Hand of EthelbertaMy mother loved fiction and gave her books that changed her life, like Rosamund Lehman’s Dusty answer. As a teenager, we swapped books, especially by 1960s women writers like Beryl Bainbridge, Margaret Drabble, Nell Dunn. Later, in Virago, I reprinted many of those authors.
Without knowing it, I was practicing for my publishing career.
You’ve worked at Virago, at Hamish Hamilton, as an agent and then at Bloomsbury Publishing. Which books from those years seem particularly important?
In Virago, two novels that came to me directly from their authors were particularly valuable: Eliot Bliss’s shiny islandRooted in Jamaica, and Atiya Hossain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column.
The first original novel I published in Virago, Sweet Deserts by Lucy Ellman, was important. I saw his art reviews in the Times Literary Supplement and I just said, “Why don’t you write a novel?” We gave him £1,000 and time; He wrote about his father’s illness and death and the book won the Guardian Fiction Prize.
That experience taught me almost everything I know about launching a new sound.
In Hamish Hamilton, disgusting kinky This was the first novel by Esther Freud that I read, beautifully set in Morocco. Barbara Trapido’s Magic That came soon after, and we worked together for years. Those early books solidified my understanding of how to grow as a writer rather than as a career.
As a literary agent, I traveled with a small “caravan” of writers like Esther, Barbara, Lucy. Amanda Foreman’s Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire There was an attraction; It became a movie with Keira Knightley. Before leaving the agency I also worked editorially with Maggie O’Farrell on her first novel.
In Bloomsbury, Helen Oyeyemi icarus girl, Written when she was a teenager at the pinnacle of Cambridge, it felt magical and ethereal. Madeline Miller’s song of achilles What was especially special: I fell deeply in love with this voice. I remember thinking on the train to Paris, “If I don’t get this book by Friday, my weekend will be ruined.” As soon as the train stopped, we already stopped it. It won a Women’s Award and subsequently took off on TikTok, selling over five million copies worldwide.
And many of your authors have won the biggest literary awards?
yes, susanna clarke was PiranesiWho won the women’s award. there was george saunders lincoln in the bardo Winning the Booker Prize. We stuck with his short stories when they didn’t sell and then finally the Booker Prize arrived.
The most emotional moment was Abdulrazak Gurnah winning the Nobel Prize. I’ve worked with him for 20 years; He was consistently praised but received little recognition. I remember there was an article in The Guardian called “Rediscovering the Canon of African Literature”, and I thought he was going to be included in it. And it was writers like Bernardin Evaristo and Ben Okri who were talking about black literature, African literature, and nobody mentioned them.
I was angry. I don’t give a shit on social media, but that day I did. And then, literally, a week later, he won the Nobel. Going to Stockholm with him, which happened to be just as I was leaving Bloomsbury, was an absolute pinnacle, and the greatest, greatest joy.
What do you look for in a manuscript?
Above everything, the voice, the tone, the rhythm, the special way in which this writer sees and says things. Every time I feel like this, it feels like I’ve fallen in love. Your heart rate increases; You think, “If I don’t get this book, I’ll be ruined.” That’s how I felt with books song of achilles And eat Pray Love.
You left Bloomsbury at the age of 70 and decided to wake up in the desert on your birthday. Why?
I believe that institutions need renewal; People shouldn’t stick around forever. So I decided to go just before my 70th birthday. Closing the doors of Bloomsbury after 40 years was a big deal.
For my birthday, I was obsessed with this: I didn’t just want to travel to the desert; I wanted to wake up there. My son came with me to Tunisia, where neither of us had been. We traveled for hours to a tented camp in the dunes.
That night, under a sky thick with stars, as a giant moon rose over the dunes, she handed me a small package: a rosary of blue glass Roman beads, 2,000 years old. Only later did I realize its resonance: About 2,000 years ago, my mother’s family had traveled from Palestine to Morocco, became Berber Jews, and traded across the Sahara.
That night in the desert opened the door to the book I am now writing.
How was the transition from editor to writer?
Write Caravan This has been the hardest and most enjoyable experience of my life. It has been a journey through me and into areas of my life that I had not explored before. It has taken me to new vistas, both physical and spiritual; The journey through Morocco and Mauritania to Timbuktu, where my family’s caravan began.
Growing up in England, for many years I didn’t fully understand where I came from. Later I gradually learned that my mother’s family came from a long line of Berber Jewish Moroccan traders.
Writing my own book helped me understand the writing process in ways I didn’t before, even after working closely with authors for so many years. It’s really made me a better teacher, which is great.
And finally, coming to your latest creative venture, Silk Road Slippers, how did it start?
This idea came from the divine mind of Faiza. I first employed him to run the trade catalog of Bloomsbury in Delhi; Later she came to London, then became freelance and dreamed of this project. He recruited me and Alex, and I thought, “I’m leaving publishing full-time, this sums up everything I care about.”
Neither of us is completely English in the traditional sense: Faiza is not; My own family roots are in Morocco and the Middle East; Alex has Russian and New Zealand heritage. My publishing life has always been looking outward, beyond Britain. So the “Silk Road”, the routes, the intersections, the interchanges, felt right.
We also liked the literal slipper, khussa, as a playful, tactile image. (She points to the silk slippers she is wearing, a pair from Karachi.)
Silk Road Slippers hosts writing courses In London and Marrakesh. The masterclass also features guest literary stars such as Colm McCann, Samantha Harvey and Maggie O’Farrell.
Everyone is talking about AI. Have you tried it—what do you say?
I’m amazed at how capable and completely characterless it is. There’s a tone you start to recognize: very casual, a little soft, a kind of slippery language that lacks the human edge. Can it churn out formulaic genre novels? Possibly. But that mysterious combination of voice, risk and deep emotion? I do not believe AI can reach that. Not yet, and probably never.
Do you read books about the art of writing?
I’ve deliberately avoided most “how to write” books. This is how I’ve built my editorial “muscles” by going in and trusting my reactions. That said, I always recommend George Saunders.
With George Saunders on his Substack, Story Club, and his book swimming in the pond in the rain, Where he introduces readers to Russian short stories is superb. He has the rare ability to express what matters in imagination without suppressing the magic.
Finally, 3 tips for writers?
Write only if necessary. Don’t do it for the money or fame; This is how hearts break. It has to come from necessity.
Find your voice. Dig until you find out what your voice is like. This is what an editor listens to.
Read greedily. Read according to time, place and genre; This will feed all the actions you have taken on the page.
Our conversation ends just as another conversation begins – writer Nadifa Mohammed has just arrived and it’s time for dinner. Here, near this pool, the “caravan” of writers with whom she has always traveled becomes a little longer. In the coming days, this advice will be put to the test as writers face their drafts around the workshop table and a new generation begins the exhausting and exhilarating process of finding their voice.
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(Sonya Dutta Chaudhary is a Mumbai-based journalist and founder of Sonya’s Book Box, an exclusive book service. Every week, she brings you specially curated books to give you a deeper understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to sonyasbookbox@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal.)
