'I was convinced it was an exceedingly difficult thing to change direction as a writer, almost like a cricketer deciding he wanted to be a footballer. '

I was convinced it was an exceedingly difficult thing to change direction as a writer, almost like a cricketer deciding he wanted to be a footballer. But the leap wasn't as difficult as I imagined.

'The gulf between the synopsis and the novel is ineffable, bridgeable only by the writing of the book. '

The gulf between the synopsis and the novel is ineffable, bridgeable only by the writing of the book. In the two years or more that follow, the synopsis appears sometimes vital handrail and sometimes obstructive impediment.

'As an adult, I've formed the habit of taking seasonal notes almost every day. It feels like reaching out a hand to touch the outside world.'

As an adult, I've formed the habit of taking seasonal notes almost every day. It feels like reaching out a hand to touch the outside world and gain the state of self-forgetfulness needed to write.

'I've written books that deal with post-traumatic stress, with mental health issues, with homelessness and missing persons, suicide and survival guilt, death and grief.'

I've written books that deal with post-traumatic stress, with mental health issues, with homelessness and missing persons, suicide and survival guilt, death and grief; and writing about these things has made me feel very differently about them.

'Ian McEwan seemed cheered that the delivery boy on his cold doorstep — dressed all working class and salt of the earth against the cold — knew who he was.'

Ian McEwan seemed cheered that the delivery boy on his cold doorstep — dressed all working class and salt of the earth against the cold — knew who he was. I asked his advice for an aspiring author...

'The Brandon Estate community mural is huge. On the wall are images of the Chartists, kite-flyers, the Empire Windrush ship arriving from the Caribbean...'

The Brandon Estate community mural is huge. On the wall are images of the Chartists, kite-flyers, the Empire Windrush ship arriving from the Caribbean, bee-keepers in white suits, and children scrambling over a woolly mammoth.

'Does any writer, in fact, work well to a background of distraction? His son's violin practice drove Philip Pullman to the shed at the bottom of the garden.'

Does any writer, in fact, work well to a background of distraction? His son's violin practice drove Philip Pullman to the shed at the bottom of the garden; Virginia Woolf insisted her shed be free of any adornment.

'I frequently think that if I'd had any sense I'd have given up all other forms of writing and concentrated on writing for children.'

I frequently think that if I'd had any sense I'd have given up all other forms of writing and concentrated on writing for children. Actually, publishers don't really like genre fluid writers like me, though no one says so.

'By the time I was working on my fourth novel, The Thousand Lights Hotel, I was thirty-six and my son was one. Writing was my happy place.'

By the time I was working on my fourth novel, The Thousand Lights Hotel, I was thirty-six and my son was one. Writing was my happy place amidst the turbulence of new motherhood; a place of both control and liberation.

'What should a writer do when someone says no? With poems sent to magazines, that's life. It's unlikely to have anything to do with the quality of your work. '

What should a writer do when someone says no? With poems sent to magazines, that's life. It's unlikely to have anything to do with the quality of your work. It may simply be the wrong tone, the wrong length or even the wrong shape.