You need to think of the book club as a kind of seventh character. It’s a very flexible voice because sometimes all the other characters are in the collective, but at other times someone is disapproved of and therefore not in it.

Which of the characters in your novel are you most like?

Sylvia, because she is the one character whose children are present – and children are omnipresent in my life. I also share her sense of impending doom!

Sony have bought the film rights to your book.  Who would you cast, and why?

I have such a strong image of the characters that I can’t begin to imagine who would play them. No one actor matches.  If business considerations could be put aside most writers would prefer unknowns.

What are you reading at the moment?

One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that it’s part of my job to read.  Most recently I read a book called Mother Nature by Sarah Hardy.  The author is a biologist who looks at evolutionary theory, focussing on maternal strategies to keep offspring alive.  The chapter on insects was very distressing!  Recently I also read Lord Byron’s Novel by John Crowley.  I became so caught up in it that I then read The Bride Of Science, a biography of Ada Lovelace who was Byron’s daughter.  It’s wonderful that I can follow my obsessions, whatever is interesting me. 

Are you in a book club yourself and if so what are you reading next?

Yes I am and we are reading Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight.

Do you discuss your own books at the book club?

Yes, my fellow book club members insist.  It’s lovely of them but not always comfortable because they’re very smart and highly critical of other books – but when they get to me they always think it’s really nice.  I can’t go to the bathroom because I’m worried they’ll be telling each other what they really think.

What did you read as a child?

Lots of the children’s books I loved had fantastical elements.  I remember a book called Castles And Dragons, which was a collection of fairy tales from different cultures.  I also loved Mistress Masham’s Repose and The Once And Future King by T.H. White.  The Once And Future King is the most important model I have as a writer, because it persuaded me early on that there were no rules, that you can write whatever you like so long as you are enjoying yourself, that it’s fine to digress.  And The Lord Of The Rings, long before those books became what they are now, and which I loved.  Also the Nesbit books, The Wind In The Willows and Mary Poppins.

Which authors do you most admire?

There are so many.  Being a writer has made me less critical – mostly when I read books I like them.  Ursula Le Guin and Molly Gloss are absolutely fantastic.  Kelly Link is a short story writer who writes unlike anyone else.  My favourite book of the last few years was Kevin Brockmeier’s The Truth About Celia.  I loved Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  Also The Hamilton Case, by Michelle de Kretser, about the independence movement in Ceylon.  And The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston.

Austen’s books often leave you wondering whether all of her matches are good ideas. Do any of the matches in The Jane Austen Book Club create disquiet?

My New York editor was very distressed that Allegra went back with Corinne at the end. I do feel that they are not a match and it will all explode again very soon.  And I don’t think Bernadette’s marriage will last.  But I think the others will. I think Jocelyn and Grigg is a nice combination of a bossy woman and a man who likes bossy women.

Which of Austen’s characters would you choose to be stranded on a desert island with?