Brits can't hack it - official!

[Paul Nightingale]

McEwan and Ishiguro are probably still the 'most famous' graduates of
Bradbury's UEA course. If anything has changed since the time of the
interview (1990) it's the greater presence of creative writing courses in
British universities (UEA was a pioneer, and Bradbury should be given credit
for that). Nonetheless the Brits are still suspicious (and I don't know if
I'm reading that into the interview or not); they tend to think 'real'
writers don't have to be taught, and one reason why TRP et al are less
popular here is that such writing can be denounced as affected (and I've
heard the same said of Ulysses). Having said that, of course, Ishiguro yokes
Britain and the rest of Europe together in their reluctance to run creative
writing courses (I've no idea how the rest of Europe has moved on since
1990); whereas, from the pov of British realism, the European novel might
also be thought affected.