'Even the fiercest, toughest girls responded to your unfeigned kindliness, your motherly affection. With hindsight I see how much you would have liked children.'

Even the fiercest, toughest girls responded to your unfeigned kindliness, your motherly affection. There’s sadness in remembering that, because I see how much you would have liked children. I don’t know if you realised how important you were.

'I needed to learn that so much happens in the prewriting stage when the mind is working in the background, churning ideas and working stuff out.'

I needed to learn that so much happens in the prewriting stage when the mind is working stuff out. I was sitting down to write like I was clocking on to a shift. I hadn’t played with the screenplay and was placing huge demands on this moment.

'I heard the words I’d typed – one day, years ago, not feeling like a ‘proper’ writer – brought to life on my TV screen. A dream achieved. '

Last night I watched the film of my novel; no eyes on me, no need to alter my expression for fear of upsetting the director. I wore pyjamas and heard the words I’d typed – years ago, not feeling like a ‘proper’ writer – on my TV. A dream achieved.

'What am I thinking of when I write? Why do I think I am doing it? I am bringing my attention to lived experience '

So, if not books, what am I thinking of when I write? Why do I think I am doing it? It seems to me that I am bringing my attention to lived experience — be that my own or how I imagine that of others to have been. I’m focussing on shades of experience,

'I see writing for publication as a contract. I make up stuff that I hope will inform, entertain, scare, thrill or amuse the reader.'

I see writing as a contract between the writer and the reader. I make up stuff that I hope will inform, entertain, scare, thrill or amuse. I spend time reworking the raw material my imagination has provided into something that, I hope, works for you.

'I joined the Barbara Pym Society and attended their conferences in Oxford, where I bought Pym swag and home-made quince jelly.'

I joined the Barbara Pym Society and attended their conferences in Oxford, where I bought Pym swag and home-made quince jelly, and yearned to win a prize on the Pymbola. I took to the world of Barbara Pym with a zealot’s enthusiasm.

'When I'm in editing mode I almost can't read other writers' work, because everything feels overwritten. I can't stop my internal editor adding imaginary comments.'

When I'm in editing mode I almost can't read other writers' work, because everything feels overwritten. I can't stop my internal editor adding imaginary comments in the margins. A lot of published novels really could have done with killing those darlings.

'My speech emerged so late, and so mangled, that it was experienced by others as either foreign or gibberish; in the England of the day, synonymous.'

I was an outsider within my more fissile than fusional nuclear family. My speech emerged so late, and so mangled, that it was experienced by others as either foreign or gibberish; terms which, in the England of the day, were understood as synonymous.

'Different spaces. Different states. They’ll jostle and shoulder each other. Important stuff will get pushed out on either side. '

Different spaces. Different states. They’ll jostle and shoulder each other. Important stuff will get pushed out either side. And you’ll get cross. All you can do is maintain a basic level of health and safety; do the writing you need to do to stay sane.

'If only you could have the friendship of fellow-poets, the respect of your peers! But all that’s some years in the future. '

If only you could have the friendship of fellow-poets, the respect of your peers! But all that’s some years in the future. Your life so far hasn’t given you much social confidence, and your parents, supportive as they try to be, don’t really understand.