If I were to try to describe the way in which I write, the only word I would use without qualification is 'slowly.'

It's extremely difficult to describe interestingly what happens on the pitch. Thousands of journalists write millions of words every week trying to do it, so your chances of avoiding cliche are very slim. And you're trying to write fiction, not a match report.

I tend to boycott all teenage reading while I'm trying to write my own stuff.

I write very slowly.

After being rejected for years, I found a publisher for 'Keeper,' and it won prizes, and then I had to write a second and a third book because I kept taking the money and spending it.

I have kind of a personality defect in that I find the word 'no' hard to articulate.