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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
As told to Emine Saner

A moment that changed me: Ken Follett – killing time, I found the inspiration for my most successful novel

Ken Follett at Peterborough Cathedral.
Ken Follett at Peterborough Cathedral. Photograph: Courtesy of Ken Follett

In the mid-70s, when I was a young reporter on the London newspaper the Evening News, I was sent to Peterborough – then pretty much on the edge of the paper’s circulation area – to do a story. I had finished my interview, and had an hour to wait until the next train back to London, so, having nothing to do, I went to look at Peterborough Cathedral.

As you approach it from the west, there are three huge arches: they look like doorways for giants. Inside, I looked around and was completely fascinated. Most people who look at a cathedral feel this, usually asking themselves two questions: why did medieval people want one of these? And how did they build it?

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