Remember during the Clinton impeachment days how the Europeans would howl about Americans violating the personal privacy of the president? So many people over there love to portray us as Peeping-Tom Puritans. That’s why I enjoyed the interview with British author Ian McEwan in the current issue of Publisher’s Weekly: “I would say that American journalism is far less intrusive. If I’m going to meet an American journalist in London, I’d quite happily have him come to my home, because he isn’t going to focus on my private life. I wouldn’t let a British journalist through the door. It’s always been like that. British journalists like to conflate you with the characters in your work. American journalists tend to be quite literary; they simply don’t press you with personal questions.”