If an agent approached me tomorrow, I'd certainly listen. But if not, I plan to self publish my second book and keep on doing what I'm doing.

That's when I decided to do the self-publishing thing. The way I look at it is, you have to have confidence in yourself and your product. If the book is good, it's good.

But the rejections got nicer as I went along. And I let a lot of people read it - not just relatives - and I kept getting positive feedback.

Currently she was midway through a bittersweet David Nicholls novel that any other time might well have made her self-indulgently reflective.

There is a self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge.

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.