SOPHIE HANNAH

Sophie Hannah is a successful novelist and poet. Her novels include Cordial and Corrosive and Superpower of Love. Her latest collection of poetry just out received excellent reviews. She has also worked on translations of the Moomins' children's books and a recent song cycle. She lives in Yorkshire and frequently travels the world on behalf of the British Council. She was interviewed by the first enCompass reader in residence, Tom Palmer in 2003. You can read more about her on Contemporary Writers.

What are you reading now?

Starter for Ten by David Nicholls - a very funny first novel about a student who's obsessed with University Challenge.

Where is your favourite place to read?

In bed, or on a beach.

Where do you get your books?

Lots of places - shops, libraries, borrowed from friends, supermarkets.

When you borrow books from friends do you have any criteria what recommendations to accept and what to side step?

If people say a book is gripping, I usually give it a go. If, on the other hand, a book is recommended because it's 'lyrical' or 'sumptuous', I sometimes give the book a miss because it sounds as though it might have no plot.

You do a lot of work abroad - as a writer. Have you picked up any good reads in the countries you've visited?

No, I don't think so - I usually take books with me to read while I'm away.

Can you think of the book you've read that has most evoked a country for you?

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series have a very strong feel of America, as do Sara Paretsky's thrillers.

You seem to read a lot of crime. What do you like about the genre? Can you recommend a few crime writers that those of us who don't read crime could start with?

I love crime because there's usually a good story that hooks you until the end. Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters, Mo Hayder, Nicci French, Joy Fielding and Harlan Coben are among my favourites. I also read a brilliant psychological thriller recently called Summertime by Liz Rigby, published by Penguin - I definitely recommend that - totally unputdownable.

Where do you stand on the debate stirred up by Jilly Cooper and Joanna Trollope - they said that there's too much 'grim lit' and people should have a bit more respect for 'Sun Lit.'?

I don't think grim subject matter makes a book grim, necessarily. For me, a depressing book is one that has a flat, dreary tone. Anything that's written with energy and attitude is upbeat because of the way it's done. For example, American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis didn't make me feel grim, because it was so well written, and even funny in places. But yes, I do agree that books should make readers feel good in at least some ways.

In response the FBI's recent suspicions of buyers and borrowers of 'Seditious Lit' could you choose three books that best represent who you are?

Coming from Behind by Howard Jacobson
I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
Collected Sonnets by Edna St Vincent Millay

Could you explain a bit more about why your three books define you?

The two novels: because they have a bizarre and very specific, slightly dark sense of humour which I feel very in tune with. The poems: because I am very interested in those themes in my own poetry

Is there any book you've read that you'd like to change the ending of?

I often wish the endings of crime novels were better. I get fed up of books in which the solution is a let-down, after a really good build-up.

What are your favourite children's books? Are they ones you read as a child or are they one read recently?

Everything by Dr Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are, everything by Enid Blyton, everything by Roald Dahl.

Thank you, Sophie.

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