The Belgians tend to downplay the cultural divide issue, and the far-right issue, but there's a staggering degree of casual racism in Belgium, much worse than in the UK.

I was particularly drawn to Berlin because of its literal, concrete division. Two halves making a whole, or two entities that were altered doubles of each other? Twins that had been separated and kept in neighbouring houses and raised according to different sets of rules as a social experiment? It was irresistible as a metaphor for division in the mind, for a split personality.

The short story feels like the most natural length for prose fiction, or certainly for the kind of ideas and situations I like to encounter.

I have no patience with up-themselves authors who complain about having to trail round a few bookshops signing stock.

I am interested in power and in the idea of one country exerting power over another. The Soviets took this to an extreme.

I always have lots of zany ideas for promotional stuff as publication nears.

I love experimental writing, when it's good, and good examples are much more likely to be found in the short form.