{BOOKS} Jon Ronson th
Ronson
J on is speedily picking his way through a tiny plastic tub of pretzels. ‘Wasn’t it a pretzel that George W Bush nearly choked on?’ I say, a little worried that Ronson might suffer the same terrifying experience right in front of me in this quiet ‘green room’ in Stoke Newington town hall. ‘Mmhmh, yeah,’ Ronson manages to say as he chomps at another snacklet and then, quite unexpectedly, tips the pretzels onto the table so he can get easier access to the litter of salt lying on the
bottom of the container.
Downstairs in the main auditorium, local MP Diane Abbott is officially opening the second Stoke Newington Literary Festival. Soon, Ronson will appear on stage to talk about his most recent book, The Psychopath Test, though not before he has tweeted about Professor Richard Wiseman – author of Quirkology and Paranormality – who is using slides during his performance, in which he aims to prove that ‘sightings’ of ghosts are almost always totally bogus.
‘I’m on next. I wish I had a slide show. I can’t follow a slide show,’ announces Ronson to his followers. Possibly 30 seconds later: ‘They’re loving his slide show. He’s showing clips. I’m fucked. This is like going on after All Media. My tongue’s swelling up.’ After the event he will tweet @StokeyLitFest that, ‘I was, unusually for me, panicking unnecessarily.’
If Ronson’s writings are to be believed, he is constantly in a state of high anxiety or at least some level of discombobulation. Early on in The Psychopath Test he admits to feeling a surge of fear when he is abroad on an assignment and trying to call his London home. When no one replies, he will immediately picture unspeakable horrors happening to his wife, Elaine, and his son, Joel. Then he will finally get through and all will be well, until the next mini rush of panic. When The Psychopath Test came out in May, he heard that Will Self was due to review the book for The Guardian. Ronson was positively beside himself. ‘My first thought was, “Well, that’s me fucked.” And then I thought, “How terrible that all these people are liking the book yet Will Self is going to turn up in the middle of it and ruin everything. Well, you know what, I’m going to email Will Self and I’m going to say to him, ‘It’s your prerogative to give it a bad review, but I want you to know that lots of other people like this and I think it’s a terrible shame that you were given the opportunity
L A V I T S E F
‘THEY HAD A BUNCH OF AUTISTIC PEOPLE WITH A SEX WORKER IN THE MIDDLE’
26 THE LIST 18–25 Aug 2011