Where’s your bookcase located and what does it look like?

There are four of them, rescued from skips or bodged together from spare wood and fitted in the alcoves in my work room. The one in the picture is above my computer desk. The bookshelves are stuffed to the gills and messy and a bit out of date, as I’ve run out of room and now keep very few books once I’ve read them (I don’t re-read books).

What kind of books will definitely not be found in your bookcase?

Non-fiction, apart from those titles relating to research I’ve had to do, and traditional romance.

What author have you discovered and loved recently?

So many! Belinda Bauer, Lauren Beukes, Tom Benn, Ben Miller, PM Newton. I could go on.

Where is your favourite place to read?

In the bath.

Can books change lives? If so, which one changed yours?

I think they help us grow and develop and learn. Books open up other people’s stories, diverse lives, different cultures and are a way of creating empathy and sharing our humanity. One that made a great impact on me was The Primal Wound – Understanding The Adopted Child by Nancy Newton Verrier. It helped me come to terms with the mix of feelings I had about being adopted.

What’s the book you’d choose as your Desert Island read?

An impossible choice. I can’t think of anything that would suffice. It would have to be unbelievably long, as well as being beautifully written and emotionally rich and full of compelling characters and adversity and ultimately hope. Any ideas?

What book did you give last as a present and to whom?

The Humans by Matt Haig to my daughter.

What are you reading now?

I’ve just finished The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey and The Serpentine Road by Paul Mendelson and am back from the library with The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor, How To Be Both by Ali Smith and The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.

What are your top ten books?

Only ten? I’m not sure I can pick just ten. These are a few that I love though it’s not a fixed list. In no particular order:

• Faithful Place by Tana French
• The Naming of Eliza Quinn by Carol Birch
• Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
• The House At Pooh Corner by AA Milne
• Corrag by Susan Fletcher
• A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
• Woman On The Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
• The Secret River by Kate Grenville
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• Red Leaves by Thomas H Cook

Told you ten would be hard.

What’s your most treasured book on your bookcase?

It might not be treasured but Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is invaluable when I am stuck for titles so I’m very fond of it.