Q. Which other EAFOL 2016 participant are you most excited about? There are so many wonderful participants coming to the Festival that it really is hard to choose. I have recently discovered the joys of audio books, and am currently listening to H is for Hawk which is such a beautiful and emotional book. So for me Helen MacDonald will be an author whose interview I won’t be missing. Q. Which book(s) are you reading now? Helen Dunmore’s first novel Zennor in Darkness which is one of the very few novels of hers I hadn’t read – till now. It’s a wonderful account of an isolated community during the First World War, and what happens when DH Lawrence and his German wife arrive. Q. Which literary character would you invite to dinner? And why? I have always thought I’d like to have met Geoffrey Chaucer. He must have been a marvellous raconteur, and I bet he loved a good gossip. A great travelling companion! Q. There have been some interesting additions to the dictionary over the years. Which word would you remove? Reverie. As soon as I see this in a submission, I throw it down. To daydream is fine. To indulge in a reverie is somehow not. Q. Who would write/ illustrate the story of your life? John Singer Sargent – though I’d hope he’d make me rather more glamorous and statuesque than I really am. Me how I’d like to be, perhaps!