I slightly feel, having written Paraguay and Newfoundland - and both of them have developed eccentricities through isolation - I am quite relieved to be back in France and Germany, and I want people to enjoy these books for the writing and not because they feel they can laugh - some will laugh - at these eccentric places, that's not what I intend.

I often think I would like to come even closer to home and write about somewhere like Wales, for example - which we in England tend to be a little snooty about. That's where the coal comes from and that sort of thing.

I have dipped into Ian McEwan and so on. I tend not to stick with one writer. But I dip in here and there.

A lot of books are sold and given away as presents. But who actually reads and enjoy reading?

I tend to prefer traveling in the Third World countries. Like Ethiopia. Or Eritrea.

Radio is very popular [in Britain], but it doesn't connect us in the same way. It seems to have this community function.

I want people to laugh with me and Paraguay and Newfoundland, but I don't want to laugh at them. I hope in my books at the end of the day you come across with the impression that I really admire both of these places.