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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? A good writer must hold in mind – at some level - how a reader travels through their story, and so being a reader of sorts must help with crafting the best possible journey. According to a report of the Independent Book Publishing Association, over five million American adults belong to reading groups. What, do you believe, is the basis for this country's love for literature and books? Books are a way for people to experience and reflect on worlds they may or may not already know, to see places, events and others from different perspectives and to share their own similar or contrasting experiences – good, bad or ugly. Books take us out of ourselves, but also help us understand how our own individual lives and feelings can resonate with the human experience of others. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? I belonged to a writing group, when I first started writing, and a key part of that was to discuss books, films and plays. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? Follow no rules. You’ll discover something in any book, even if you hate it. What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? I’ve just read a new version of Gawain and The Green Knight by Simon Armitage, and that’s prompted me to revisit Beowulf. I’m also looking forward to reading Until I Find You by John Irving. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? The Four Quartets by T.S.Eliot, because I see it as a meditation on life, and the more one lives, the more it offers. If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? Doris Lessing, Arthur Miller and James Joyce, because I return to various of their books, plays and stories over and over, and their diversity and power never diminishes. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? Self-help books, diet and detox books, coffee-table books, well-thumbed pages passed beneath school desks... Favorite book when you were a child? Peter Pan. If you have children, is this the same book you read to them? If not, what is your favorite book for your children? I don’t yet have children of my own, but I love making up stories for children. At the beginning, I ask them which characters they’d like in the story and then weave them all in as I tell it. I try to put the children in the story too and of course make them the heroes and heroines. Favorite heroine in literature and why? Tess of the D’Urbervilles springs to mind – because I find her sensuous, curious, essentially innocent and a fighter and survivor to the last. Favorite hero in literature and why? Garp – for his defiance of the ‘under toad’. Favorite first line from a book? Grimm’s Fairy Tales / ‘Once upon a time…' Favorite last line from a book? End of Great Gatsby / ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Book that changed your life? Someone recommended The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron to me in my mid-20s, when I was enmeshed in corporate consultancy. It was like being given an oxygen tank and helped me understand what writing means to me, and how to start writing. Words to live by? "It is not because things are difficult, that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare, that things are difficult." --Seneca
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