An interview – from several months ago now – with The Booktrail, on my home town and my novels.

Every book creates its own sensory landscape; I think some writers are more attuned to certain senses as well. I’ve always thought of myself as a very visual writer, and Nineveh is full of lush images of glinting beetles. It’s a book, in part, about architecture and the built environment, and the visual contrast between the smooth, high, white walls of the luxury estate and the colourful, teeming, chaotic insects was important. With Green Lion, I was trying to tap into the sense-world of a big predator: there’s a lot of earthy description of odour. My new novel, which is about the plant world, has some interesting (biotoxic) taste sensations running through it. I’ll have to do a touchy-feely book next.