Andrew Strong

Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?

An astronaut with a crew cut and a big car with fins.

Q: What is your favourite word?

Spoon - I have no idea why.

Q: What are you afraid of?

Having my arms and legs pulled off by a giant daddy longlegs.

Q: When did you last have a really good laugh?

About three minutes ago when a friend rang to tell me his father asked if his ipod could play cassettes.

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

My fiddle, or notebooks that go back thirty years.

Q: What do you do as a hobby?

I doodle my own postcards and send them to strangers.

Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?

Had a fist fight with Paul McCartney. (Yes, the one in the Beatles).

Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

Wine taster, robot designer, film director or Admiral of the Nautilus.

Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?

Much younger. About 10.

Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

Eddie Izzard. I'd vote for him to be the first president of the UK.

Q: What quality do you most admire in a person?

Practical vision: someone who can design and build something that works. The bloke who designed my kitchen was the closest I've ever got to genius.

Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?

"Don't use so many adjectives."

Q: What would you most like to change about yourself?

My need to sleep, that and my insomnia.

Q: What has life taught you?

That nobody really knows anything.

Q: How long have you been a writer?

I wrote my first full length novel at 26. Didn't get published for 15 years.

Q: Was there a specific moment in your life when you decide to become a writer?

No, it's just what I've always done.

Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?

Weird places - like the old shop that was the setting for Idlegreen in 'Oswald and the End of the World'. There the things on the shelves that were ten years past their sell by date.

Q: Which of your own characters do you most identify with?

Cardew, the mad chef in 'Moles'.

Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?

Don't get it. But I have a routine, a sort of ritual to combat it: I always make one cup of very strong espresso and have to start writing before I've finished drinking.

Q: What was your favourite book as a child?

"Winnie the Pooh" and "Chicken Licken".

Q: What book do you wish you had written?

"Wind in the Willows".

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Don't do it for anything other reason than you love it.