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.

My only regret is that I signed away the world rights and in America they've been far and away my most successful books, but I never saw a cent from any of it.

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.

You would go mad if you began to speculate about the impact your novel might have while you were still writing it.

I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood.

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.

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