This was the time when every magazine carried short stories — detective stories, adventure stories, romance stories, doctor and nurse stories. (On a train, Barry) Spacks began reading some of these out to me, and so we took a decision that changed our lives, at least for the next couple of years or so. For, as Spacks pointed out, these tales were simple in the extreme. They were constructed to formulae so simple they made Enid Blyton appear great literature. There were no more than three or four basic plots, three or four simple character types and a couple of endings. A small wallchart could lay out the configuration, and Spacks drew one on the spot. All that was necessary for a young author to do was to take the conventions, which were as ready prepared as a Betty Crocker cake mix, throw them in the pot, heat and stir them a little and serve the results to the breathless publishers; and he could be rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

All we had to do was to devise ten simple story ideas, following the chart. These we jotted on file cards, numbered from one to ten. In the morning we set to work. We placed two desks opposite each other, a portable typewriter on each. Then one of us took file card number one, and the other file card number two. We sat down, facing each other, and began to type.

In the course of the day, we determined to finish ten stories. To speed matters, we evolved an effective working system I can recommend to this day. When one of us blocked, he shouted “Stuck!” At this signal we each ran round the desk, sat down at the opposite typewriter, and resumed the other story where the previous author had left off. Whether this was how Beaumont worked with Fletcher, Gilbert with Sullivan, Tristan with Isolde, I am not sure. Certainly it worked for us, and would be the envy of any Japanese production line today. News of our literary efficiency spread, and neighbours used to come by to watch us, gasping with amazement as the two of us typed furiously for ten minutes or so, cried “Stuck!”, switched seats and began again without wasting a single second.

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• Vincent van Gogh’s letters show the soul of the artist