Faber & Faber

At school I was terrible at ...

Joining in. I hated joining in. Even now, when I’m at a live show and a band does the crowd participation thing, I hide under the seats.

When I was a child my favourite book was ...

Can’t remember the name, but it was an anthology of stories about vampires, werewolves, cannibals etc, that contained a remarkable illustration of Vlad the Impaler lording it over hundreds of vanquished enemies pronged upon sharpened sticks. And I lived for 2000AD.

I started writing when / because ...

My English teacher took no lip. God bless her.

The hardest part of writing a novel is ...

Trying to not talk about it.

I work best when ...

Fed and watered.

I wish I’d written ...

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.

The fictional character I most identify with is ...

Rev. Harry Powell from Night of the Hunter.

The greatest influence on my writing career has been ...

Bob Dylan. Flannery O’Connor. And Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

If I wasn’t a writer I would ...

Go mad and paint my arse black, as my father used to say.

The most underrated writer / artist is ...

Writer: Jennifer Lynch. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer is one creepy book. Artist: Joe Coleman.

My favourite short story is ...

‘How To Tell A True War Story’ from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. And my friend Sean makes a serious case for ‘The Comet’ by Bruno Schultz.

The most evocative piece of sports writing I’ve ever read is ...

The Fight by Norman Mailer, specifically the 'boiler rooms of the damned' section.

The most romantic piece of writing I’ve ever read is ...

La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri:

'In that book which is
My memory ...
On the first page
That is the chapter when
I first met you
Appear the words ...
Here begins a new life.'

My favourite bookshop is ...

Raven Books, Blackrock, Dublin. Chapters, Parnell St, Dublin.

My favourite festival venue / festival experience is ...

I always wanted to go to Mexico for the 'Day of the Dead'.

My literary five-a-side football team would include ...

Angela Carter, Nick Tosches, Joseph Campbell, Harper Lee and Elaine Pagels. And I’d love to see certain writers, who shall remain nameless, mud wrestle.

The finest / most disappointing film adaptation is ...

The finest: Dr Strangelove, (radically) adapted from Red Alert by Peter George.

Most disappointing: Bonfire of the Vanities, The Basketball Diaries, Jesus’ Son etc etc

If I listen to music when I write I usually put on ...

Dead Man soundtrack by Neil Young.

I am kept awake at night by ...

The Claw of Death.

My guiltiest pleasure is ...

I can’t answer that and call myself a gentleman.

My favourite all-time TV show has to be ...

Neck and neck between Deadwood and Twin Peaks.

If I could go back in time I would ...

Erase Ted Hughes’s memory banks and pass off Crow as my own.

The thing that would most improve my life is ...

Plenty more of it.