Probably induced by the asthma, I started reading and writing early on, my literary efforts from the age of about nine running chiefly to poetry and plays.

I used to go with my parents and loved it, I was in school plays, and I started reading plays before I started reading novels. I'll defend it to the hilt. When theatre is good it is fabulous.

I started reading when I was about three, a little over three.

At 16, I started reading trashy stuff, anything slightly naughty and risque.

I started reading literature at 17 or 18, and I felt this extra beat to life.

Poetry, plays, novels, music, they are the cry of the human spirit trying to understand itself and make sense of our world.