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In Antal Szerb’s The Incurable, the eccentric millionaire Peter Rarely steps into the dining car of a train steaming through the Scottish Highlands and sees Tom Maclean, the writer, in a corner scribbling away ‘I’m not disturbing you?’ he asks, taking the empty seat opposite him ‘You certainly are’ Tom replies, ‘Please stay and disturb me some more It would be a real kindness You see, at least while I’m talking to you, I won’t be working Sir, the amount I have to do is intolerable I’m fed up with myself, absolutely fed up I’ve just been to Scotland for a bit of rest I tell you – I was there for a month – in that time I translated a novel from the French, wrote two essays and a novella, eight sketches, six book reviews, ten longer articles and I’ve still got two radio talks waiting to be done’ ‘But why the devil do you work so hard?’ Peter asks ‘For a living, my dear sir, to make a living’ As Tom is so busy he doesn’t even have the time to read a book for its own sake, Peter decides to grant him a thousand pounds a year on condition he gives up writing entirely, a proposition Tom wholeheartedly accepts A month goes by, during which Tom gives vent to his desires: he goes fishing, walking, learns foreign languages – and yet feels unnervingly restless, to the point that when he visits his sister’s family one afternoon and finds his nephew Freddy itching to go off to a football match, but unable to do so because he needs to finish an essay on Shakespeare and Milton, Tom writes the essay for him Having failed to keep his end of the bargain, Tom calls on Peter to renege on their agreement, ‘I’m terribly sorry,’ he says, ‘but I really have no choice in the matter’ ‘But haven’t you been happy without your writing?’ Peter asks ‘No, sir It’s just no good If you threw me in prison I’d write in blood on my underwear,