I was meant to become the best football player in the world. My knee formed a cartilage problem. I was meant to become the best guitarist in the world. I could not tune the guitar. On this basis I went to study literature and philosophy in Helsinki. Soon it became evident that this combination of subjects would qualify you to be a researcher or a housewife. I went to the Sanoma School of Journalism.

I became a reporter at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat. I enjoyed writing under strict guidelines. When the editor wanted 200 millimetres of text on the national ploughing championships, I went to work. I rejoiced when the computer screen informed me that even after all the cuts, the length of the article was 203 millimetres. Somewhere there was a word with an unnecessary suffix. My mission was to find and destroy it. This is how eleven years passed by.

As a freelance author, free time vanished. In my case that was only a good thing. At first I wrote novels on modern small-time crooks, later on Finnish history. What interests me in great men is their pettiness. I wrote three books on my childhood

When I was asked, I started to work in television. Besides narcissism, I justified it to myself on two counts. I wanted to get rid of my stage fright. I also wanted to have people to work with. An author has none. When an author shuts the door of his study, freedom and solitude begin. That is neither noble nor tragic. That is just how it is. There is no other way it can be.

I have written for newspapers my entire adult life. That is why the ones I have worked for make such a long list: Lapin Kansa, Kansan Uutiset, Parnasso, Ilta-Sanomat, Aamulehti, Kodin Kuvalehti, Uusi Suomi. These days I am writing for the Finnish Broadcasting Company and the magazine Seura.

When I was younger, I imagined there was no point in writing about things like racism and human rights. Everybody agrees on them. But actually they don’t. You can take nothing for granted in this world.