'What she said helped, in part because of that careful use of tense: 'When your first book is published, everything will change'. As if it was a certainty'

What she said helped, in part because of that careful use of tense: 'When your first book is published, everything will change'. As if it was a certainty that a book by me would be published, and if I could reach that milestone, the going would get easier.

'I’d rewrite Shakespeare’s Tempest. I hadn’t read it, but Caliban was all I needed to know. I re-formed the play to my own dream-vision.'

I’d rewrite Shakespeare’s Tempest. I hadn’t read it, but Caliban was all I needed to know. I re-formed the play to my own dream-vision, but the lavish production I envisaged was stymied by the realities of a small market town and adult scepticism.

'Terms have been coined to describe novels that do not ignore climate catastrophe and ecological collapse: ‘cli-fi’, ‘eco-fiction,’ ‘speculative fiction’. It ghettoizes the subject'

Terms have been coined to describe novels that do not ignore climate catastrophe and ecological collapse: ‘cli-fi’, ‘eco-fiction,’ ‘speculative fiction’. ‘Cli-fi’ is especially revealing, bracketing such stories alongside science fiction, as imaginative dystopias.

'Suddenly I could write all day. When horses are released from stables after being locked inside, they gallop across open fields, free at last.'

Suddenly I could write all day, uninterrupted. The only way to describe my elation is by using a metaphor. When horses are released from stables after being locked inside, with no sunlight or fresh air, they gallop across open fields, free at last.

'Most of those artists I met when I was a boy shared one thing. They wanted to create more than anything else.'

Most – and not all, but most – of those artists I met when I was a boy shared one thing in common. They wanted to create more than they wanted to do anything else. Initially I didn’t find that certainty inspiring. If anything, it was off-putting...

' I love maps for their own intrinsic beauty — their colours and outlines. I love them for helping me to know a little more.'

I love maps for their intrinsic beauty. I love them for helping me to know a little more. But I love them most of all because they are sources for my best daydreams, even now; as in my childhood, I still imagine the lives in these far-flung places.

'A thoroughly enjoyable event for my World War One novel was based around a period afternoon tea, complete with posters, bunting and wartime recipes.'

A thoroughly enjoyable event for my World War One novel was based around a period afternoon tea, complete with posters, bunting and wartime recipes, and the question and answer session occurring speed-dating style as I moved around tables.

'Choosing precisely the right piece of text to submit to the cursor’s jaw or the pencil’s jab is never fortuitous. There are criteria, clear in my mind.'

Choosing precisely the right piece of text to submit to the cursor’s jaw or the pencil’s jab is never fortuitous. There are criteria, clear in my mind, that preside over each choice: mood, pace, proportion and what I call the curve — a quality of tension.

'‘What are you up to?’ she asked. Her friend replied, ‘I’m bleaching the spoons.’ This friend was Val McDermid and even she was prone to bouts of procrastination. '

On a day when she’d rather do anything but write, Frances Fyfield phoned a friend. ‘What are you up to?’ she asked. Her friend replied, ‘I’m bleaching the spoons.’ This friend was Val McDermid and even she was prone to bouts of procrastination.

'To see the world afresh we ‘make it strange’. It is also a way of creeping close to realities and fears we have difficulty talking about. '

To see the world afresh we ‘make it strange’. It is also a way of creeping up close to realities, instincts and fears we have difficulty thinking or talking about. For Les Murray’s ‘Pigs’ the abattoir, and hence death, is incomprehensible: