She began her writing career as a poet, performing and writing with the Poetry Virgins. Currently she is a Royal Literary Fund fellow and writer in residence at Live Theatre in Newcastle, where she has lived for the past twenty years. She has been writing prolifically for radio and stage since 1988 her most recent work being ‘Eating the Elephant’, a comedy about breast cancer.

In March 2003 she won the Northen Rock Foundation Writer’s Award, the UK’s biggest literary prize of £60.000

interview with the author

What made you start writing in the first place?
I always liked words and I wasn't very good at anything else. Writing has always helped me make sense of the world around me.

Where did you get the idea for the shoe tree in The Taxi Driver’s Daughter?
It's a real tree in the park near where I live. Someone started throwing shoes up in the tree about five years ago. The council chopped the branches off fearing that the shoes would fall on peoples heads, but the community around the park just kept on putting the shoes up there. It seemed a very magical thing was happening but no one really knew why.

Why did you set the novel in Newcastle?
Because I live there, and because it fascinates me as a place.  I wanted to write about ordinary people living in the North east, although, of course, no one is really ordinary.

The twins in your first novel, Crocodile Soup, are telepathic. Why did you choose to make Gert a twin? What appeals to you about twins?
There are younger boy twins in my family who are not telepathic at all. Perhaps I wanted them to be. I like the idea of boy/girl twins who encounter gender difference but who are very close. It was funny that when I wrote Croc Soup suddenly there were twins in loads of novels. Twins were in the air!

There are some fantastic characters in your novels. Are they based on real people?
 My characters are always combinations of different people put together. I like most of my characters and feel sad when they get to the end of their stories. In the new novel I wanted to write from a male point of view (Mac) as well as a female one. All humans are interesting I think, and everyone is eventually lovable.

There is a strong fairy tale element to The Taxi Driver’s Daughter. Tell us about that.
I am drawn to fairy tale imagery often...red shoes, trees in shoes, a girl lost in the woods, wishes. As a child I lived in these stories. I liked the horror and wonder of Grimms Fairy Tales. I am influenced by writers like Angela Carter too. I think this memory of the stories we read as children is in all of us, and waits to be awoken.

You also write plays. What is the difference in the way you approach your plays and the way you plan your novels?
Writing plays is much more sociable, and involves other people. When I am writing fiction I am in control of everything and I can decide on every single thing in a book. In the theatre I write a script that is realised by others; directors, set designers, actors, and this is always a revelation, although it can be scary too.  I return to fiction to be in complete control.

You are currently supporting the Arts Council’s project to promote short stories. Do you read many short stories?
I started writing short stories and still find them an incredible exciting form. They make you want to leap about when they work!  I support the campaign because I know of so many short story writers who have to write novels to be recognised.  As a reader, I find stories are very memorable and forceful...Raymond Carver, Lorrie Moore, Bridget O Connor, Helen Simpson, Murakami, Flannery O Connor....and there are so many English writers who are not known. 

Can you tell us about what you will be writing next?
I am answering these questions in an internet cafe in Brazil. I am writing a novel about two women with cancer who come to Brazil to be healed. I'm not sure what happens yet!

Who are your favourite authors?
Carson McCullers, Raymond Carver, Sarah Waters, Jeanette Winterson, Angela Carter, Haruki Murakami, Jane Austen, Jean Rhys, Anne Tyler, Carol Shields, Rose Tremain, Jackie Kay, Kathleen Jamie, and on and on!   
 
Could you recommend two paperback books for reading groups?
Birds Of America by Lorrie Moore, Faber & Faber, £6.99
A True Story Based On Lies by Jennifer Clement, Cannongate Books, £6.99