I'll know when the ideas aren't fresh anymore. And I'll know when writing doesn't give me a thrill anymore.

Now, when I was in the Army, writing was my hobby.

There are lots of other things that I haven't done, places I haven't seen. So eventually I'll have to find time for those things while there still is time.

The Army was my bread and butter.

The amazing thing now is that most of those so-called critics who were telling me to find my own voice seem to have lost theirs.

If, like Harry Keogh, I could talk to the dead - God, there are an awful lot of people I would like to speak to! Not least my father. Being in the army for 22 years, I didnt see enough of him, and I know there are a great many things I could have learned from him.

A literary critic is someone who can't write, but who loves to show he would have been a wonderful writer if only he could!