In Cold Ink by David Robinson 

Want to know how Kate Atkinson works out her plots? How Richard Ford studies character? Discover the "secret architecture" behind David Mitchell's fiction? Follow William Boyd on the thin line between fact and fiction? Find out how Ian McEwan set the course of his latest novel?


Over the last few years, David Robinson, literary editor of The Scotsman, has interviewed some of the finest writers on the planet. His book, the critically acclaimed In Cold Ink,offers plenty of hints for would-be writers from the modern masters of their craft. Published this week by best-selling novelist Alexander McCall Smith's Maclean Dubois imprint at £9.99 (hbk), it's in bookshops now (ISBN 978-0-95144705-5).

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Critical reaction to In Cold Ink

David Robinson has a great critic's love of precision and a great reporter's appetite for life. That's why his writing about writers is so wonderful to read. He has a natural grasp of tradition and the individual talent, which makes In Cold Ink a book to treasure - Andrew O'Hagan

Robinson writes with an expansive descriptiveness that is engaging, but he also brings to his work a decency that is unshakeable.... I cannot but be impressed by his refusal to embrace the faintest trace of tabloid tackiness. One gets the impression that Robinson would genuinely rather discuss style and character with his subjects rather than probe into their sex lives or childhood traumas. The trust this engenders in authors and the relaxed conversations that follow are one of the many pleasures in this intelligent and sympathetic collection.

The art of interviewing is not a science, yet everyone recognises those who are good at it and those who are not. Serious research and an ability to listen well are fundamentals of the job, and Robinson ticks both boxes
- Rosemary Goring, the Herald, Sat 12 July

Robinson's affable tone with his subjects, mostly novelists ...  teases out biographical facts, themes and attitudes that are put together with respect and a fine critical judgment that combines content with literary context.
-Iain Finlayson, The Times Sat July 12