In conversation with Tony Parsons

The bestselling novelist and journalist on his latest novel, Girl on Fire, and being a feminist

Tony lives in Hampstead, London, with his wife, Yuriko, their daughter Jasmine, 15, and his dog, Stan. He has a grown-up son, Robert, from a previous relationship.

I feel very fortunate to have had a career in journalism. It’s been good for me as a novelist. Writing a novel is a marathon and encourages you to dig a little deeper; journalism encourages you to be disciplined.

Man and Boy was the novel that changed things for me. It’s a very simple story about a man bringing up his son alone. I wrote it when my mum was dying of cancer, so the emotions in it are very raw. It was a book full of love, about love passing from one generation to the next.

Rereading Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels made me think what an incredible achievement it is to create a series hero that every generation rediscovers and reinvents. I’d written several other successful novels but wanted a change of direction.

So I cashed in my life’s savings to write The Murder Bag. It was a big roll of the dice and I took a year just to think about it and another year to write it. Luckily we sold the book within 24 hours and it was my first number one bestseller in 10 years.

My hero, detective Max Wolfe, is a bit like my shadow brother. He’s an idealised version of me: more heroic, more brave, more attractive to women. Nicer, more compassionate, less selfish, but he’s also got a short temper. Sometimes I feel a nostalgia for when Jasmine was young, so I gave him his daughter, Scout.

Since The Murder Bag came out i’ve met a lot of policemen. They’re incredibly compassionate people because they wouldn’t be doing that job otherwise.

My new novel, Girl on Fire, is about the aftermath of a terrorist atrocity. as a novelist, I’m always looking towards next year’s headlines. There have been a few drone incidents around Heathrow and people have dismissed them as idiots playing with their toys and endangering the lives of hundreds. I wanted to take that one stage further.

i would say to my 20-year-old self, don’t expect success to be linear. expect disappointment and setbacks. Success is largely about how you manage disappointment.

My dog, Stan, keeps me relaxed. He enforces hours out in the open air in all weathers, which i wouldn’t do without him. Having a dog is a real blessing and a huge part of my life.

i don’t want to be a fat old man so i take my physical fitness quite seriously. I’ve had the same personal trainer for the past 12 or so years and go to the gym twice a week. I don’t like going but

I never feel as good as I do afterwards.

My wife, Yuriko, and i met in a Japanese restaurant in islington. I was with my then girlfriend and Yuriko was sitting at the counter. I was about to go to Japan to write a couple of travel pieces so I talked to her about where I should go. We were married a couple of years later. We didn’t have a honeymoon because we spent all our money on a party at the Savoy. They gave us their best suite for three nights for free, so we just hung out there. It was the last day of Wimbledon and I remember leaning out of the window and watching andre agassi and Steffi Graf walk in for the after-party.

We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by going to centre court at Wimbledon. my wife’s a big tennis player – I’m not but we feel a kinship

with Wimbledon now.

“Success is largely about how you manage disappointment”

People have mocked me for saying i’m a feminist. I never had sisters but if you have a daughter, you’re rooting for women in a way that you haven’t before. You’ve got a personal stake in women being respected and coming out on top.

Unlike my son robert, my daughter’s a mystery to me. I knew what Robert was going through because I could see myself in him, although he was a different kid from me. Jasmine and I hang out together, but I’ve no idea what she’s thinking.

Unkindness makes me angry. One of the reasons I like spending so much time in Japan is that there’s a kind of default kindness there that tries to make sure people are at ease and at peace with themselves. I prefer that to the kind of thoughtlessness of a lot of life in the west.

Tony Parson’s new novel Girl on Fire (Century) is out on 8 March