Bret Easton Ellis talking about Imperial Bedrooms

Above: a British first edition of Less Than Zero. This book dates from 1985. It seems to have gone straight into paperback, without a hardback edition.

On Tuesday I went to see Bret Easton Ellis talking about Imperial Bedrooms, Less Than Zero and his other novels. The talk was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and started at 7.30pm. About a thousand people attended the event.

The discussion was chaired by Suzi Feay.

Bret Easton Ellis was modest to the point of indifference, expressing bemusement that anyone should value his writing. I am unsure whether this was genuine modesty and bemusement, or whether it was pride and self-satisfaction masquerading as modesty and bemusement (implying what a great author he would be if only he would take his talent seriously). Or perhaps he was just shy and tired.

"I work slowly... I wish I had more ideas for novels... I'm half as bright as I once was..."

There was an ironic interlude when he praised the MTV series The Hills, comparing it to the work of Jane Austen.

He told us he wrote his first (unpublished) novel aged fourteen (where is this now I wonder?).

Occasionally he talked about the act of writing: "The act of writing transports me... The inspiration for writing a novel does not come from joy or happiness... The darkness of Hollywood is the stress..."

The most interesting (for me) sequence was when he talked about Less Than Zero: "There is a noirish aspect to this novel... I was reading a lot of Chandler... It is clearly set in its time... I am astounded to see people half my age reading the book... It went through many edits... It's about youth culture in LA" ("LA" pronounced elle-ay, in a slurred drawl).

He denied he was the narrator Clay. He talked about the narrator Clay in the third person. He described how asking himself questions about the narrator Clay led to him writing Imperial Bedrooms.

The questions were monopolised by people who wanted to ask about American Psycho, so that they became monotonous. They were also dominated by questioners who wanted to be witty (with varying degrees of success). Suzi Feay should have managed this section better.

Emerging from the auditorium the queue for the book-signing was so huge I would have missed my last train home had I joined it.



Above: Bret Easton Ellis signing books after the talk. He looks tired and apprehensive. Note the glamorous PR "minder" to his right.

Less Than Zero is a book that changed my life.

After graduating in medieval history I was unsure what to do with my life. I seemed destined for a career in museum work. At the time it seemed as if the past (in particular, the European past 200BC - 1400AD) was crushing me.

In my last term at university I started applying for internships at various museums, and on impulse sent an application to a world-famous museum on the coast of California. To my surprise (to everyone's surprise) they said yes, but the only vacancy they had was in their Public Affairs department. Everything they sent me was by overnight courier - they seemed awash with money.

Having arranged to "work" at the museum for three months, I then booked accommodation in Los Angeles (in Hollywood, although after a few weeks I moved to Fremont Place). I was excited at the idea of going to a place that had no medieval past - that seemed to have no past of any kind whatsoever. In my naive way I began to research Los Angeles, which is how I came to read Less Than Zero.

I took the book completely seriously. I dissected it as if it was a work of anthropology. I was dazzled by the exotic culture the book revealed.

And when I finally touched down at LAX I walked straight into a Less Than Zero lifestyle (except that I never took any drugs). How this happened I can't really explain. I was the least likely person to inhabit, even by proxy, a Bret Easton Ellis novel. I know many people, most of them a lot cooler than myself, who had completely pedestrian experiences of the BUNAC work-in-America programme. But having read the book, it was as if I knew what to look for. It was as if I knew where to go, who to talk to, what to say "yes" to...



Above: review of Imperial Bedrooms by Mark Lawson. He is a reliable guide. You might disagree with his reviews, but if he takes a book seriously you know it must be worth reading.