What are you most looking forward to at the 2016 Festival? Meeting those attending the Festival – it has such a great reputation. When did you realise you wanted to be a writer? When I realised I no longer wanted to be Prime Minister. What book do you find yourself re-reading most often? Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It’s pure escapism. (And Shakespeare, of course) If you weren’t a writer, what would you be? Retired. And finally, we have a number of aspiring writers attending the Festival. What one piece of advice would you give them? Don’t aspire, do it. Sit down and start writing. Now.