‘The rage was building… stoked by subterranean rejections of all sorts. Going back to childhood, to the womb, to before the womb, to legions of unplacated ghosts of ignored women and writers over the centuries.’
'I was offered a place at Goldsmiths to read History. I didn't like history, but it was my ticket out of my home town. Some time during my three years I discovered there were bits of history I loved.'
'The articles I later wrote about this extraordinary trip may have helped sell my novel, who knows? I was fired by something else by then; the urgent need for an ocean sanctuary to protect the Kermadecs in the future.'