In addition to being a writer, you’re an installation artist, among other things. Do you think writing and art provide any similar skills, or a specific pleasure? Does your writing cross over into your installation work, or vice versa?

For me they’re very different ways of coming at similar ideas. With writing, the pleasure is in singularity, having the time and space to tease something out. I rent a house out in the bush, and I spend every second week there by myself. I have no phone reception and 90s era internet, and it’s perfect for going down into something and staying there. I love spending so much time playing with words and voice, which seem particular to writing. The other week I was writing a character who had a drawling, laconic accent, and when I went into town to shop, I had to catch myself from speaking in that accent. I realised I’d been thinking in this guy’s voice for days. Which may or may not be a healthy thing!