Daniel Tammet interviewed in the Times
17 Aug 2017

Daniel Tammet is interviewed in the Times today talking about his new book Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing: Encounters with Language

‘Tammet’s struggle for everyday conversation in English masked a gift for languages that helped to turn him into a bestselling writer with an eye for the detail that separates good authors from bad.’

‘He has gone from being a person with autism who writes, to a writer with autistic roots. Soon, probably, no one will bother mentioning the autistic roots.’

‘[The book] is a journey through labyrinths of language and the oddities of those who speak it — all of us, in other words. It is not a book about the idiosyncrasies of autism. It is a book about the idiosyncrasies of humanity.’

‘Descriptions fly out at the reader … his literary talents … he found salvation in writing.’

The book will be extracted in the Guardian next week and he is due to be interviewed on Newsnight and will be appearing at the Edinburgh Festival.