I think every author I've read has influenced me to some degree. When I was in my teens, I read a great deal of nineteenth century fiction, and many of the authors I discovered then - the Brontes, Dickens, Trollope, Gaskell, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, to name but a few - continue to inspire me. My all-time favourites, however, include Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Jean Rhys and George Orwell.

All my books that have yet to be written!

I like the quiet life, and enjoy long walks in the country, gardening and cooking. Living in Italy, where there are so many glorious places to see, I like to get away for the weekend or a few days when I can.

A variety of ways. Word of mouth is a big factor: if someone whose opinion I respect recommends a book to me, I'll be very interested in reading it myself. Others I discover through pure chance: the cover appeals to me, perhaps, or the book description piques my interest. If I enjoy the free sample, I'll certainly consider buying a copy.

It was actually a poem, called "Thunderboots the Giant". I'd like to point out that I was about five years old at the time!

Ideas come to me in a variety of ways: an overheard conversation, a newspaper article, an anecdote. I let the idea gestate slowly in my mind, waiting for it to gain clarity and detail; it's a very organic process. Then, when I feel ready, I write a very rough first draft, in which I concentrate on just getting the basic story down. After that, I start the long, long process of re-reading, editing, and rewriting, which takes a very long time. Eventually, when I'm beginning to feel confident in the material, I send it out to my invaluable beta readers, who read it and give me their honest (sometimes uncomfortably so) opinions. This is usually followed by at least one more rewrite, and then by editing and proofreading, until finally it's ready for publication.

I like to come up with a cover design that reflects something of the essence of the book. It's important to me that the cover should, to some extent, sum up what the book is about: its themes, its mood, its setting. I look long and hard for images that I think convey these things.

It's very hard to choose just five! However:-

Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness": a beautiful, melancholy, and sometimes horrific journey not just through the heart of Africa, but right into the dark heart of humanity.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby": a tragic love story, played out against a backdrop of money, power, and greed.

Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea": much more than just a prequel to "Jane Eyre", this is a powerful indictment of colonialism, slavery, and sexism, in which much is conveyed in few words.

Graham Greene's "The End of the Affair": another love story, but one that seethes with ethical and spiritual questions and probes into the heart of the human condition.

Richard Yates' "Revolutionary Road": a tragic examination of inadequacy, soured love and squandered dreams, set against the sterile background of suburbia.

Anything I can get my hands on! Fiction is my first love, but I also enjoy history, poetry, and philosophy.

I grew up mostly in Wales, in an area with something of a split personality. On the one hand, there was all the detritus of heavy industry: abandoned pitheads and steelworks, slagheaps, and old factories. On the other hand, there was wild, beautiful countryside - mountains, lakes and forests. That landscape has always haunted me, and I think it's made me sensitive to the relation between place and mood.