‘Countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and France are way ahead of the UK in terms of arts funding. In July The Observer reported that while Britain has cut back its total culture budget by 6% since 2010, Germany, France and Finland have each increased their spending by up to 70%. Decisions like this are ideological.’

‘I write until I’ve written about forty thousand words and then I wonder what I’m doing for a couple of years and then I write about another thirty thousand words and at some point my husband, who is a brilliant ghost writer and editor, reads it and we have a conversation about it, then I cut a load of words and noodle about with it for a while longer and then give it to my agent.’

‘In order to connect with what I’m writing, I read it out loud in character. It lets me feel the way the character might say something, listen to the rhythms, find the silences.’

‘A good writer should be a voracious reader. I never did a single creative writing course – I learnt everything from reading and studying other authors.’

‘I try my best not to read reviews - people can be cruel and I am a fragile thing. But there’s one review that always makes me laugh, which said, “‘Spoilt Creatures’ is not a novel that I particularly admire.” Speak your truth.’

'I’ve heard a few writers say - Zadie Smith being one of them - that the novel, short story, whatever it might be, is representative of the writer at that particular time. You will never think in exactly the same way and therefore you will never write the same again. A comfort, I think.'