Ten Questions

What I switch music on helps the radio. you write? It’s good to have music on which I haven’t chosen.

Where Either do in you my studio, write best? or at a desk in the corner window of I the can bedroom. see the sea. Through the

The best writerly advice you’ve received?

It was reading that formed me as a writer. At times it’s daunting to read superb writers when you are young and inexperienced and everything you write seems weak by comparison, but more often it’s exhilarating.

Which books are on your bedside table?

I don’t read in bed, so the books are everywhere else in the house. At the moment I’m reading Stephen Grosz’s The

Examined Life, the proof of a new novel by David Nicholls, and National Velvet by Enid Bagnold — an old favourite.

What book do you wish you’d written?

None, really. Every writer has his or her own field, or material. It’s no good trying to write other people’s books, or envying other writers their gifts. Much better to enjoy them.

Do you keep a diary?

Only a practical one — although I do make notes in it about the book I’m writing. So, a day might read: “10.30am dentist, 45 mins,’ followed by ‘the tide must be high because coal can only be picked at low tide’.” It makes sense to me.

What was the first novel you read? I cannot remember, really. The Lantern

Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff made a very strong impression on me when I was eight or nine. She brought the collapse of the Roman Empire in Britain to such vivid life.

Who is your favorite fictional hero?

Jim Dixon (or James, as Margaret would

have it) in Lucky Jim, especially when he is giving his lecture on Merrie England while drunk.

What are you working on next?

A novel which hasn’t yet got a title. I often use a working title until very late on. It’s a wonderful moment when the real title comes into being; it seems to clinch the book. Which current book will you remember in 10 years’ time?

There will be more than one, but I’m sure of remembering Matthew Hollis’s

Now All Roads Lead to France, about the last years of the poet Edward Thomas. • Helen Dunmore’s latest novel is ‘The Lie’ (Hutchinson, R285)