Exploring the Hidden Self an Interview with Malcolm Knox

Abstract

Malcolm Knox is a man of paradoxes. He answers questions with the same strident voice from his prose, fulfilling the promise on the blurb from his latest novel, Jamaica, that he is an "unflinching observer of fallibility, hypocrisy and thwarted ambition." Face to face, however, his pale blinking eyes, masked by strong prescription glasses, slight build, and the tense line of his mouth portrays a man not at ease with himself. There is an intriguing sense that, perhaps, he harbours the same sort of secret shared by his dark characters.