Tell me about your new novel, The Life Impossible.
I had stepped away from writing for a while and wanted to do something else but then this idea came for it. I am prouder of this than anything else I have written. It is a weird book, in some ways. A fantasy about a retired maths teacher who develops magical powers while visiting Ibiza. But it is also a story about grief and hope and love and acceptance.
Your previous novel, The Midnight Library (2020), sold nine million copies. Why do you think it resonated so much with readers? Was it a hard act to follow?
I honestly have no idea. Timing maybe. It came out at the start of the pandemic when people were having a kind of existential crisis and this book was the right one for that feeling. But that is just a guess.
The film adaptation of your novel The Radleys (2010), about a family of vampires whose parents are trying to go straight, is soon to be released. Tell us more.
The Radleys was a fun story to write. Abstaining, suppressed middle-class vampires living in suburbia. It has been in development since before the novel was published – so long that MySpace was the main social media platform at the time. So yes, patience pays off.
Your debut novel The Last Family in England (2004) retells Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 with the protagonists as dogs. Your second, Dead Fathers Club (2006), is based on Hamlet, and Shakespeare is a character in How to Stop Time (2017). Why does he mean so much to you?
I think Shakespeare is to writers what the Beatles are to musicians. The works loom large and the influence runs deep and you can have a lot of fun playing about with them.
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You are also a highly successful children’s writer. A Boy Called Christmas (2015) was made into a 2021 film. What inspired you to write Santa’s origin story?
My son Lucas was at that age where he was asking a lot of questions about what Father Christmas was like as a boy. I didn’t have an immediate answer, but it inspired me to go away and write an answer in response. Writing the book was a balm for me; when you’re writing for that younger age group, you can naturally adopt a storytelling voice and escape into the world you’re creating.
That same year you published a much darker bestseller, Reasons to Stay Alive, about your struggle with depression and anxiety disorder. Was that the hardest book to write? Its success was “double-edged”.
It was actually the easiest book to write. It came out of me like water from a tap. The hard bit was the new role it kind of forced upon me when I came out. I am not a doctor or a therapist and was very clear to state that, but it kind of pressed me into that kind of role and I was never very good at that. I have kind of moved away from that now.
You admitted you wrote The Possession of Mr Cave (2009) for the wrong reasons – to try to get a highbrow, literary response.
Yes. I was very insecure. I was with the wrong publisher. Thinking I needed to write for reviews or to win prizes. I was over-serious and had a feeling I was about to be dropped. Which I was. Just after we had our first child, which wasn’t the best timing. But getting dropped by my publisher and going back to the drawing board freed me up and I began writing precisely what I wanted to write.
You’ve been diagnosed recently with ADHD and autism.
I have. It was good to know, and it has helped me be more compassionate to myself, but at the same time I am not being defined by it, and am certainly not going to bore people with a book on the subject!
Books are your one true faith, you have said, and the library is your church. Why do they mean so much to you?
When I was ill during a breakdown, books were really the only form of culture I could consume. They are quieter than TV, music and films. They meet you at your level. They help you find yourself again.
You’d like to write a musical?
Yes. Maybe a musical of The Midnight Library. I think it would work as a musical. She starts in a music shop and in one life she is a rock star.
Which projects are you working on?
I am coping with the release of The Life Impossible by writing a new book, but I can’t say that much about it. Except that it is quite surreal and about a missing person.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
Every time I go to a bookshop!
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
“The first draft of everything is awful. Write anyway.”
Who do you admire the most?
My wife, Andrea. She is incredibly strong, and organised and together in ways that are beyond me.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
The new Alien film is amazing.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
Tokyo.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Borges, Shakespeare, Douglas Adams, Dorothy Parker, the Emilys (Dickinson and Brontë), and Homer just for curiosity, and to see if he was a person or a collective.
The best and worst things about where you live?
The weather in summer is the best. The weather in winter is the worst.
What is your favourite quotation?
“Don’t talk unless you can improve the silence.” – Jorge Luis Borges. (Advice I rarely follow.)
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Winnie-the-Pooh.
The Life Impossible is published by Canongate
