Who is your perfect reader?
Someone who is as intelligent as I am. If they’re too stupid, then they won’t get everything. If they’re too clever, they’ll think I’m stupid. So somebody exactly at my level would be perfect.
What books are currently on your bedside table?
Why the World Doesn’t Seem to Make Sense by Steve Hagen and It’s All Right Now by Charles Chadwick.
What book changed your life?
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts. It taught me that the world is entirely the opposite of what I thought it was.
When did you know you were going to be a writer?
From the age of nine, when I won an essay competition at school. It featured James Bond escaping from a shark.
Where do you write best?
Portixol Hotel in Palma de Mallorca. It overlooks the sea on one side and a fishing harbour on the other. I just write more – and better – there than I do anywhere else in the world.
What is the strangest thing you’ve done when researching a book?
I wander round my local cemetery at midnight quite a lot with a notepad seeking out good names on gravestones.
What keeps you awake at night?
Foot cramp. It’s really agonising. Also, the cat jumps on my head. So, foot cramp and my cat.
When do you feel most free?
When I’m far away from home and my mind is untroubled. I felt most free when I drove across California in an open-top car, by myself.
Who are your influences?
John Updike, Raymond Carver, Tom Wolfe and Richard Yates.
What do you snack on while you write?
Reese’s NutRageous or Peanut Butter Cups but I think NutRageous is better.
What are you scared of?
I fear anything other than the feeling of complete success in my life when I’m on my deathbed. That sounds ridiculous. Let’s make it this, instead: being misunderstood.
What book or books do you wish you had written?
The Rabbit books by John Updike.
How would you earn your living if you had to give up writing?
I would be a spiritual guru or a psychologist.
What novel would you give a child to introduce them to literature?
My own books and Hippos Go Berserk! by Sandra Boynton.
What does it mean to be a writer?
Living inside your own head and being annoyingly inaccessible to other people. My wife would probably advise anyone not to marry a writer.
Tim Lott’s novel ‘Under the Same Stars’ is published by Simon & Schuster in paperback
