When I was a child I had a best friend who lived across the road from me. When her mother died unexpectedly it was like losing a member of my own family. I think I am still affected by the memory of that loss.

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications.

My theory is that I decided to be a writer when I was about seven, but of course it is not as simple as that. Like most writers, I had to work at other things to earn a living and wrote mainly in the evenings, often very late at night, for many years.

You can't say you want things to be simple and then in the next breath ask me to be honest.

I hope I am not too repetitive. However, coming to terms with death is part of the general human situation.

I am really chained to my computer these days so I work in my bedroom, which is a room I have worked in for years and years. It is just as much an office as a bedroom, and during the day, my bed is rather like an extension of my desk.

In a way, the characters often do take over.