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When I went from being an academic to being a member of the community of writers some of my former colleagues did look on me with a certain resentment.

I resisted writing a book for a long time because I didn't want to invade anyone else's privacy or hurt anyone or anger anyone.

The reason is that for many years I have avoided reading anything whatsoever that approaches my own line of country, out of a somewhat fanatical desire to avoid the risk of unconscious imitation.

I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn't think I could read, much less write.

Which is a wonderful irony, I have property there. I go back every chance I get. One of the main reasons I actually wrote the book, agreed to write it having never wanted to do that in my life, very intimidating by the way to write a book.

One of the ways I stuck out was I was a very passionate reader. There was probably a cyclical nature to that; the more I felt like an outcast, the more I sought refuge in books, and the more I sought refuge in books, the more it made me not speak the same language as my peers.

When I was a kid, I resented my grandparents not speaking the perfect English I wanted to speak.

I became obnoxious to the Jacobins because I reprobated their aristocracy, which aimed at usurping all legitimate authority.

I left my job as a feature writer on a newspaper to write a book, then sent it off to a number of agents thinking they would all reject me. Within a week, most had come back to say they loved what they had read, which then led to a bidding war for my first two novels.

I don't read books by people who have betrayed the Motherland.