Smash Lits with Tom Vowler

1 How do you organise your book shelves?

Utterly chaotically, anything anywhere, though I have one of those memories that means I know where each one is.

2 What is your favourite cheese?

Peels of parmesan, preferably with a glass of red.

3 You are wallpaper. What is your pattern?

Something dour, peeling a little.

4 What was your favourite book as a child?

James and the Giant Peach, though curiously I hated fruit.

5 What is your default pub drink?

Pint of real ale, hoppy and golden.

6 What was the last text you sent?

‘About half eight?’

7 Who would play Stephen Briggs in the film of your book?

Shaun Evans – he of the young Morse.

(Ooh, he’d be perfect for the role. Good pick!)

8 Bacon VS Tofu – who wins? Why?

Bacon. You can’t trust words that end in ‘u’.

9 Do you believe human beings can spontaneously combust?

No, but I wish some would.

10 Have you ever written an angry letter to a magazine or “news” paper?

If only there was time.

11 Have you ever woken up laughing?

Only when I sleep naked.

12 Have you ever had your fortune told?

A man in a pub did once say, ‘You’re heading for a beating’.

13 How much money did you spend yesterday?

About £9.

14 Where do you go in your dreams?

The Cornish coast if I’m lucky.

15 What’s your most vivid childhood memory?

The family cat escaping from the car in a strange town.

16 Who is your favourite Neighbours character?

Is Charlene still in it?

17 What’s your favourite bird?

Are you referring to my peregrine obsession here?

Originally I was going to ask if you could draw a peregrine…

18 Have you ever seen a ghost?

As an ardent sceptic, I hope not.

19 Who is your writer crush?

Sarah Hall. Her words do something wonderful to me.

20 What question should I have asked you?

That one.

 

Tom Vowler is a novelist and short story writer living in south west England. His debut collection, The Method, won the Scott Prize in 2010, and his novel What Lies Within received critical acclaim. He is co-editor of the literary journal Short Fiction and an associate lecturer in creative writing at Plymouth University, where he’s completing a PhD looking at the role of the editor in fiction. That Dark Remembered Day is his second novel. More at www.tomvowler.co.uk