Each month on euradio, in Turning The Page, our team will be interviewing people from the book world.
We explore Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan, focusing on its protagonist, Campbell Flynn, a celebrity writer and academic riding high after the success of his lucrative self-help book 'Why Men Weep in Their Cars'. On the surface, he leads a charmed life, but internally he is more and more challenged by a sense that he is a beneficiary of the very system he criticises. Raised to aim high, but never taught how to navigate the corrupting effects of power and influence, Campbell is sharp enough to recognise 2020s London as a city of hustlers and opportunists, weakened by Brexit and swollen with Russian money, though equally coming to recognise that it helps fund a 'culturati' of which he is part.
A compromised and conflicted character, he is caught in the familiar working-class dilemma between ambition and integrity, a conflict which eventually leads to his collapse and downfall.
