But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels.

Well, I like the rain before it falls.

Revisionist historians are about to get their hands on the Thatcher years, shes probably going to be looked at again because she feels far enough away now, and we dont see her much on the political landscape in this country, shes kind of disappeared and she doesnt speak out much anymore.

It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political.

I had no sense of any reputation that What a Carve Up! might acquire - at the time I didnt even have a publisher, so my main worry was whether it was even going to see the light of day or not.

As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you?

I was mainly in a state of nervousness while I wrote it - nervousness that it was far bigger and more complicated than anything Id attempted before, and that maybe my talent just wasnt up to it and the book would have to be abandoned, or would turn out not to work at all when it was finished.