Q & A with Bill Rompkey

1. What was your first piece in print (book, review, or article, etc)?

I edited the Muse, the MUN student newspaper, for a year in 1956, so I wrote an editorial every week and lots more. I also wrote a weekly column for the Express when it was published in St. John’s. But my first book, The Story of Labrador, was published by McGill-Queens in 2003. Lately I have written op ed pieces for the Hill Times and the Diplomat here on Parliament Hill.

2. When do you like to write (time of day, day of week)? Where do you do your writing (location)?

My day job necessitates that I write mostly on weekends and holidays. If possible, I like to get up early in the morning when I’m fresh and have the house to myself and write as much as I can. But I squeeze in writing time whenever I can.

3. What other jobs have you had besides being a writer?

I have been a bellhop and a busboy and a supermarket stuffer and a welfare officer and a naval officer and a teacher and a school principal and a Member of the House of Commons and a Senator. I have tended bar and played in a band, not necessarily in that order.

4. What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to walk because I don’t skate very well any more. Or, if I can, I snowshoe. I like to read and I like to interrupt that with short stretches at the piano.

5. What is your favourite food?

Pan fried cod with scruncheons and mashed potatoes followed by bakeapples and cream. And a cup of tea. 

6. What kind of music do you listen to?

I like classical in the morning and afternoon, and a quiet piano in the evening—maybe Chopin nocturnes and the like. But I also like ballads, Chris Kristofferson or Willie Nelson and subdued rock from the 50s. At times I like to play military music too. I think piano and trumpet are my favourites.

7. Who is your favourite author(s)?

For escape reading I like Jack Higgins and Robert Parker. But I tend to read intensely depending on what subject I’m interested in at the moment. For example, now it’s the Second World War and specifically the Battle of the Atlantic. That has led me to Churchill, who is clearly a favourite.

8. What are you reading now?

James Lamb, The Corvette Navy; Marc Milner, Battle of the Atlantic; Martin Gilbert’s biography of Churchill; and other books of the period.

9. If you could live during any time period and in any place, when and where would you choose?

I enjoyed growing up in St. John’s in the ’40s and ’50s. Otherwise I might have liked Dublin, which probably might have been much the same.

10. Make a question of your own and then answer it.

What is life?

Life is not a destination but a journey, and it is not a dress rehearsal; there is just one performance, so make the most of it and do what you want but do it well.