What I like about Oxford is how small it is; it's really more of a big town than a city.

On the Web we all become small-town visitors lost in the big city.

People question what I thought of Oxford. Students used to talk about the 'Oxford bubble' because the place can make you feel cut off from the rest of the world. I would forget there were places like London that were not centred round libraries and essays.

My dad grew up in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, desperate to get to London. I grew up in London, so I don't know what it's like to yearn for the big city from a small town.

I worry that people think you have to go to a university to be a good writer, which is categorically untrue. I don't think I learned how to write at Oxford. I did not go to any creative writing classes or anything.

It is a strange world, Oxford - quite claustrophobic. I was often glad I was only there for eight weeks at a time.