1
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What was your inspiration for writing the book? Purely empirical.

2
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I've lived and worked in the area all my life and simply walking around the streets.

3
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There's been this wonderful opportunity to observe what sort of diverse community of people live and interact in the Edgware Road area.

4
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I've been a huge fan of swimming for many years and actually visiting the swimming pool,

5
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which is where much of the action for the novel is set, really gave me the idea.

6
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Imagine six people with very disparate, different backgrounds, all coming together,

7
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having something in common which was not actually known to them at the time, and then an unforeseen event actually bringing them together.

8
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That struck me as an incredibly exciting dynamic for the crux of the novel and where you could really see these diverse elements coming together.

9
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How did you find the process of writing it? Did it come to you easily or some parts more of a struggle?

10
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I thoroughly enjoyed writing it, and I was always conscious at every stage of not wanting to put myself under any pressure.

11
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If it was going to be unenjoyable, then I simply wasn't going to do it.

12
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The way in which it worked for me was really to try and break it into constituent parts.

13
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Each character story can almost be read as a short story in its own right.

14
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And then the final section is where all of the characters actually come together and almost like chess,

15
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play chess pieces, moving around on a chess board.

16
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In terms of how and when I wrote it was really in in moments when it came to me, when I had that clarity.

17
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I found early mornings were particularly good and given my day job actually being in hotels,

18
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in foreign countries, having a blank desk with no disturbances was also a very good place in which to write.

19
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And what was one thing you learnt was that that has helped you in your writing career?

20
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I studied. It was the rather than English literature, although I did go on to do English subsequently.

21
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But I think one of the great beauties of doing a liberal arts degree at a university like Oxford was really that right from the outset.

22
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One was encouraged to do one's own research and to have half a sort of enquiring mind about the world.

23
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And that idea of actually being very sort of thoughtful, gathering your results, almost a, dare I say,

24
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a sort of Cartesian view of the world where you take the foundations you build up from there and you're always constantly learning,

25
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trying to create new things.