George R.R. Martin says he has around 500 pages left to write for next Game of Thrones book

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has confessed how many pages he has left to finish The Winds of Winter.

Don't hold your breath.

Martin was interviewed on Stephen Colbert’s Tooning Out The News with cartoon host Dr Ike Bloom.

Bloom sat down with the iconic fantasy novelist and introduced him to fellow author James Patterson, a writer known for his quick turnaround from pen to bookshelf.

The animated host introduced Martin with a quick jibe: "[He’s a] struggling writer - let me revise that, truly pathetic - who is having trouble meeting deadlines."

After hearing of the 11 year delay - yes, it's been that long - Patterson said: "I’ve. heard of writers’ block, this is more like writers’ constipation."

He added: "I actually have the opposite problem, I suffered from writers’ diarrhoea."

Ah, toilet humour. The highest form of literary wit.

Patterson asked how many pages Martin has written in just over a decade.

George could be seen squirming ever so slightly as he revealed: "Err…like 1,100, 1,200, something like that…It’s not done yet though."

He then dropped the bombshell, saying: "I need another 400, 500 [to be finished]."

While for some of us, 500 pages might seem like a piece of cake for a seasoned, best-selling author.

Nah, mate. You're wrong.

That means - and this is the best-case scenario - Martin has completed about 75 per cent of the penultimate book.

And at his speed of writing, that means the book is likely another few years away.

If you have enough rage building inside you now that you could pull a Daenerys and just snap, then yeah...we get how you're feeling.

But, what this does mean is that The Winds of Winter sits at about 1500-1700 pages long and is by far the longest one yet.

For example, A Dance with Dragons was only 1,056 pages long.

While it might be taking him an absolute age to finish The Winds of Winter, remember that Martin still has the final book, A Dream of Spring, to go as well.

At age 74, who knows if we'll ever get to see the final book.

"I don’t think my wife, if she survives me, will allow that either,” he added.