“A publisher had written me a letter saying, if you ever have a novel, could we see it? So I finished this novel, I send it off. I actually got a letter saying we’d like to publish this, and then I heard nothing.

Then I published a book of poetry and won the prize and I’d gotten a letter from the publisher saying, we see in this newspaper article about you that you have an unpublished novel. Could we see it?

You’ve been seeing it for two years!”

“It’s not just the longevity, it’s the quality of work, it’s the variety of genres, it’s the humour, the wit, the verbal brilliance that she brings. She has been a heroic campaigner for freedom of speech and human rights. She’s got it all in terms of what a public writer might ever do.”