'You haven't written anything creative for six months. Maybe you should stick to expressing your creativity in the garden. No more spec scripts. No more pitches.'

You haven't written anything creative for six months. Maybe you should stick to expressing your creativity in the garden. No more spec scripts. No more pitches. No more writing. While on the one hand that's appealing, you know there's something missing.

'How will nature writing change now, along with our lives? I've been thinking about the Romantic concept of the sublime and how it connotes terror as well as beauty. '

How will nature writing change now, along with our lives? I've been thinking about the Romantic concept of the sublime and how it connotes terror as well as beauty. I didn't understand how this combination could exist until I saw footage of a tsunami.

'"You write about relationships. You write about love. The Romantic Novelists' Association is a broad church, and they throw fabulous parties!" So, I joined. '

"You write about relationships. You write about love. The Romantic Novelists' Association is a broad church, and they throw fabulous parties!" So, I joined. I went to the Christmas party. It was indeed fabulous. They introduced me to three agents.

'As poet in residence at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, I was given a bib with the word ‘observer’ on it. I feel I am wearing that bib a lot of the time anyway, as a poet'

As poet in residence at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, I was given a bib with the word ‘observer’ on it (lest someone mistake me for a genuine member of the

emergency services). I feel I am wearing that bib a lot of the time anyway, as a poet.

'I got diagnosed with bowel cancer. A blow like that leaves its mark, even after a complete recovery. If you can’t trust your body, how can you trust yourself? '

A couple of weeks after my third book, a story collection, was accepted for publication, I got diagnosed with bowel cancer. A blow like that leaves its mark, even after a complete recovery. If you can’t trust your body, how can you trust yourself?

'The Mabinogion, then, has some fantastical and imaginative tales, and I’m especially drawn to the way it deals with loss and with grief.'

The Mabinogion, then, has some fantastical and imaginative tales, and I’m especially drawn to the way it deals with loss and with grief, which I sometimes think that literature, in all its desire to preserve and record, is always really about.

'I could do this, relish this. A huge moment. Everything was perfect. This was when I decided to enter the festival bookshop.'

I arrived early, determined to take it all in. The sun was high; I looked over crowds in the gardens. I was excited, but not anxious. I could do this, relish this. This was a huge moment. Everything was perfect. Then I decided to enter the festival bookshop.

'To write, to read — these are beautiful and slow activities, but in this part of the world – pandemics aside – the character of our lives is less and less amenable to such pursuits.'

To write, to read — these are beautiful and slow activities, but in this part of the world – pandemics aside – the character of our lives is less and less amenable to such pursuits. Boredom is to be fled from, and can be! Reading versus Netflix?

'It was always my intention to bounce between eras and genres, like Iain Banks with and without his ‘M’. Looking at Hilary Mantel’s early career, she did the same. '

It was always my intention to bounce between eras and genres, like Iain Banks with and without his ‘M’. Looking at Hilary Mantel’s early career, she did the same. It is possible, with sheer bloody-mindedness, to carve your own niche.

'Unplayable, my first novel for younger readers, was inspired by the need to write a bestseller as I teetered on the brink of bankruptcy back in 2008...'

Unplayable, my first novel for younger readers, was inspired by the need to write a bestseller as I teetered on the brink of bankruptcy back in 2008. I called a crisis meeting with a bottle of wine, and by the time I went to bed I had the plot.