I have two children. They are more fun than anything in the world, and it's more immediate fun than the hard slog of writing.
I love Mikhail Bulgakov. He is very original and takes the story to unexpected places. I didn't realise political writing could be so funny.
Most of the people who write to me are really clever, really engaged. They just want to say that they have read my book and liked it.
Because I write a book a year, I always want to do one other project every year that's stimulating in a different way. It means you can be working but not using up your prose juice, you know?
