Contemporary Britain seems an endlessly fascinating place to me - but if I knew a little bit more about other places, and other times, maybe it wouldn't.

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

Thatcherism has become bigger than she ever was.

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.

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.

Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.

The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it.