Texting is a supremely secretive medium of communication - it's like passing a note - and this means we should be very careful what we use it for.

After university, I got a job sub-editing and for years I was a literary editor.

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.

I used to help my dad with a stall selling eggs when I was about 12. People were so hard up they would ask for one egg. But mostly no one came by at all. It was very demoralising.

I do needlepoint from kits. I give them as gifts to people in the form of cushion covers and they are often speechless with horror.

Writers and painters alike are in the business of consulting their own imaginations, and stimulating the imaginations of others. Together, and separately, they celebrate the absolute mystery of otherness.

I hate to be treated as if I'm invisible. I get incensed when people talk across me or refuse to catch my eye in a restaurant or shop.