Author Zadie Smith says she'll miss being young. In this week's Wild Card, Smith opens up about having enough time and growing older.

SMITH: Gosh - regret (laughter). MARTIN: Yeah. SMITH: I think that's the one I know very well, yeah. I think people's lives are so profoundly shot through with regret. And you don't - they don't talk about it very often, particularly in America. It's like a failure - right? - to...

From Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens to Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro and Bernardine Evaristo, London has long been home to some of the greatest writers on the planet. Often considered one of the literary capitals of the world, it’s no surprise that the city’s bookworms are brilliantly served by its excellent variety of bookshops.

Zadie Smith may have had a few parallel experiences, but when she was 19 she was also writing a best-selling novel called White Teeth. A few years passed, and in 2000, when Zadie was 24 ...