What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? Probably Danny The Champion Of The World. I still have the copy I had when I was a kid, full of Jill Bennett’s beautiful illustrations. Living in a caravan and driving cars at nine years old was the dream. Also Danny’s dad was an absolute style icon: roll neck and overalls.

What was the book you read that made you first decide to be a writer? There are lots of books that make me keep wanting to write, that work with voice and space on the page in remarkable ways, and that push me to go back and try again. Some recent ones: Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick The Latch,  Magogodi oaMphela Makhene’s Innards, Zaffar Kunial’s England’s Green: all amazing.

What’s your favourite first line in a book? I re-read this recently [from The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac]: ‘Hopping a freight out of Los Angeles at high noon one day in late September 1955 I got on a gondola and lay down with my duffel bag under my head and my knees crossed and contemplated the clouds as we rolled north to Santa Barbara.’ I mean…

Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you? I’ve just finished Liadan Ní Chuinn’s short story collection, Every One Still Here. I think it will end up being the book I’ve loved most this year. The first and last stories are relentless. Definitely a huge recommend.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? Start as soon as possible.

What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? Leave the house.

In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? I’m hoping for a universe, parallel or otherwise, with no tyrants.

What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? Surround yourself with other readers and writers. Talk about your work, read theirs, make a community of it. 

The Pin Jar is published by Rough Trade Books on Thursday 4 September.