But I have always - ever since The Accidental Woman - written novels about individuals attempting to make choices in the context of situations over which they have no control.

For many weeks after [my wife] died, I could not get used to the feeling of coldness and lifelessness on her side of the bed - and it was even worse when they took the body away and buried her.

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.

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

I like the idea of a big caesura between the narratives, a space which readers can fill in with their own speculative history.

But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.

Well, I like the rain before it falls.