John Irving on Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner – and the right way to wrestle an angry bear

At 73, John Irving has lost none of his fighting spirit. The writer and ex-wrestler lets rip at Trump, US politics, Caitlyn Jenner’s critics – and the ‘extreme patriotism’ of the Great American Novel. Then he throws our interviewer to the floor

John Irving, much-loved novelist, Oscar-winning screenwriter, and the last Great American Author standing, hooks me in a headlock and slams his heel down on my toes. A noise in an unfamiliar register escapes me. Irving’s publicist winces and shrinks into her boutique sofa. This wasn’t on the book-tour itinerary.

Before he became rich and famous, the author of The Hotel New Hampshire and A Prayer for Owen Meany subsidised his writing career and raised his family with a second job in wrestling. He grappled and he coached. But he’s 73 now: I’ve got two decades on him, and I’ve challenged him to show me a few moves. As we feint and weave around a London hotel suite, my half-remembered research comes back to me like a terrible reproof. Irving hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol in years and has regained the fighting trim he boasted when he was still in his storied leotard.

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