What Book... 

... are you reading now?

I’ve just finished Judy Murray’s novel Game, Set and Murder which is based at a tennis club and features a group of four friends and a dastardly tennis coach. It’s fast moving, fun and a great tale of faithful female friendship.

I’m now starting The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid which my wife Alice has just finished and enjoyed.

Luckily, we both like the same sort of literature – a well-written story about real people, preferably with characters who are strong, funny and likeable. That’s certainly what I’ve tried to create in Pastures New.

... would you take to a desert island?

A giant encyclopaedia so I could learn lots. I’d be so bored and lonely that I’d have to set myself blocks of learning. I may also need a cookery book as I’ll struggle to cook anything edible.

... first gave you the reading bug?

I loved reading as a child and at school I was good at English, so it was a great excuse to just read more and say I was ‘studying’.

I loved all the animal books and The Story Of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting was a particular favourite. It was my dream to be able to talk to animals and understand what they were saying back to me.

I loved Gerald Durrell, James Herriot, Michael Morpurgo and Beatrix Potter.

When I started writing for children, I put animals at the centre of my plots and in my new novel I’ve done the same. The dogs and horses are characters in their own right.

... left you cold?

I didn’t warm to The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. I found the author an unsympathetic narrator who was dragging her sick husband on a long-distance walk.

As a couple, they broke so many codes of responsible walking behaviour that I started to get very cross on behalf of those who farmed land adjacent to the South West Coast Path.

I was fearful they would give all walkers a bad reputation and ruin the relationship with landowners and local councils.

At the time it was published, I was asked to record an interview with the author but I wasn’t keen as, for some reason I couldn’t define at the time, the story didn’t ring true to me. Now I know why.