What are your favourite books?
I loved all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was young, and Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, and The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston. Later on, I loved Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, and Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, and Middlemarch by George Eliot, and most of Thomas Hardy’s and D.H. Lawrence’s novels. More recently, I’ve enjoyed novels and short stories by Anne Tyler, Carol Shields, Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, Sally Rooney, Niall Williams, Colm Toíbín, Tessa Hadley, Samantha Harvey. I still read books for children and young adults. I love Nicola Davies’ narrative non-fiction picture books and poetry, and all of David Almond’s novels.
When did you start writing?
I wrote stories all the time when I was a child. As an adult, I started with poetry, then short stories. I wrote a novel for adults which was never published, then Blue Moon (published by Puffin in 2003). I wrote the beginning of Blue Moon on a course at Ty Newydd. It was an exciting moment for me. Blue Moon was the book that found me an agent and a publisher.
Do you have any tips for new writers?
Read for pleasure and read ‘as a writer’, alert to the words on the page. Write for yourself; keep a journal or notebook so you can write often, and easily, without worrying about making mistakes. Notice the detail of the world around you. Listen. Write things down that you think and feel and see and hear and touch and remember. It can take a long time to get a story right. Don’t rush it. Let it take the time it needs. Do lots of re-writing. Pay attention to words at sentence level. Talk to other people who write. Believe in your story. Keep reading.
Where do you write?
These days, I usually write at my desk in my ‘office’ at the back of our house, with a view of trees, houses, and lots of sky. When the wind is in the right direction, I can hear the sea. Sometimes I write in cafes, or outside.
What’s your favourite place? Favourite Colour? Favourite Food?
I love the sea. You can probably tell that, from my books! I love the Isles of Scilly, and the Outer Hebrides, the Lake District, and the Northumberland coast. I love the Greek island of Ithaca, and Venice, and Sicily... too hard to choose one place! My favourite colour is sea blue. Favourite food: lemon and almond cake, raspberries.
