We Had It So Good (43 page)

How have your interests changed with each of your novels?

I think each novel reflects what is happening in my own life, my interests and preoccupations, but perhaps it is true that novelists are always writing the same novel.

Is it easy to switch between fiction and nonfiction?

For me, nonfiction is written for relaxation. It doesn't involve the imagination; the material is already there.

What's the most accurate thing someone else has said about your work?

When my first novel was published, a critic said that it satisfied both the mind and the heart. I wouldn't like to write fiction that did only one of these.

Do you have any writing rituals you like to stick to?

Write as soon as possible after waking, the closest to the dream state and the unconscious.

What can we expect from you next?

A novel about Russians in London.

Linda Grant was born in Liverpool and now lives in London.
The Cast Iron Shore
won the David Higham First Novel Prize.
When I Lived in Modern Times
won the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Still Here
was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Linda Grant is also the author of
Sexing the Millennium
;
Remind Me Who I Am, Again
;
The People on the Street,
which won the Lettre Ulysses Prize for the Art of Reportage; and
The Thoughtful Dresser
. Her most recent novel,
The Clothes on Their Backs,
won the South Bank Show Literature Award and was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

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