Summer is finally here! In three words, tell us how are you spending your summer this year?

Writing. Friends. Cornwall.

Childhood memories – what was summertime in your childhood like?

We usually went on holiday to France or Denmark. I remember very clearly, when I was five years old, we were staying in a chalet in France and there was a box of sugar cubes in this chalet. I’d never seen sugar cubes and I wanted to eat them. I wasn’t allowed so I ran away – for most of the day – I got quite far. When I was found and brought back I was allowed to eat them all. I also remember great big ice-creams in Tivoli Gardens, and these wonderful hotdogs with mustard in Denmark, and the Danish pastries in the mornings in the bakeries. I now reflect and realise this is all about food – I was born under a greedy star, what can I say?

Where would you most like to Get Caught Reading this summer & why?

I’d love to be in a hotel called Le Sirenuse in Positano – oh it’s so beautiful by the sea there and the lemons are huge and it’s no distance to Capri and you can watch out for mermaids. It’s the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Sadly, I’m not there now. Maybe next year. I’d have to sell an awful lot of books to achieve this, however, an awful lot. Best keep writing and wishing.

You create amazing characters in your books! Which one would you choose to spend summer with & why?

I would choose a seagull called Horatio. I like him very much, he’s a jolly chap, and I can imagine him landing by me on the beach for a chat and a bit of moral guidance (which might look a bit odd, but hey ho).

Reading is the ultimate escape! Which book ‘world’ would you escape to for summer & why?

Oh my goodness. The very first thought that springs into my mind is of the hot summer at the beginning of The Bell Jar. Not because it’s cheery! But because I’d love to talk to Sylvia Plath (I always read Esther as Sylvia) and get those free lunches and make up and have a driver take me through a time and place – New York then, imagine! And wear gloves and be proper and eat caviar and avocado and crabmeat. Then come home before she goes properly downhill. Oh, I would have loved to have spoken to Sylvia Plath right then and there. My second thought is the island in The Tempest. But I’d be up with Ariel, learning what the fairies know, not down with the mortals. I want to sleep inside flowers and ride on the bat’s back and learn magic and practice controlling the elements and get a bit better at it each day. What a lovely question.

Summer survival – name the three most essential things you take on holiday?

Sunblock. Imagination. Euros.

Summertime selfie – who would you have a selfie with this summer & why? (Fictional, historical, alive today)

Tom Hardy. Thanks. Is it true? May I? Good. I’ll hold you to this.

Summertime travel – train, plane, automobile or other?

Plane. I just like to get there. I like the bit when you get off the plane and are hit by the heat and the smell of a different country and you think holiday!

Inside or outside – best place to be creative in the summer? 

I can only write indoors. And I prefer writing when it’s raining, so I don’t feel I’m missing out on all the life going on outside. It’s pouring down in Exeter right now, so I am writing! Hurray! 

Stuck on permanent summer vacation? What three books would you choose to have with you?

This would change, but the mood I’m in at present it would be:

For Esme With Love and Squalor – Salinger (that would never change).

The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton

It would have to be the Complete Works of Shakespeare – as you could spend a lifetime on those words, couldn’t you? 

Thank you for participating – have a great summer!