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.

As I said, I had no publisher for What a Carve Up! while I was writing it, so all we had to live off was my wife's money and little bits I was picking up for journalism.

Some people don't realize that a straight 'No' can be the kindest answer in the world.

I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between them yet, let alone settle down to the process of writing.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.

The more melancholy side of my literary personality is much in tune with BS Johnson's.

Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem.