Emma Donoghue on reading and writing

Emma Donoghue is the bestselling author of Room and more recently of a wonderful collection of short stories, Astray and the unforgettable and deeply moving novel The Pull of The Stars. Read on for reading tips a-plenty.

Here we ask literary sensation, Emma Donoghue, about her favourite books, her love of writing, and what she might have been if she hadn't become a writer. Read on to get to know the much-loved author a little better.

What is your favourite Picador book ever?

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

What is the book that was most over-rated (fairly or unfairly)?

Fifty Shades of Grey - honestly I couldn't get through more than a paragraph.

What are you most looking forward to reading next?

Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

What would you be if you weren’t a writer?

Profoundly unhappy.

What was your favourite book as a child?

The Chronicles of Narnia

What is your favourite poem?

Emily Dickinson’s 'Wild Nights'

Where do you write?

Wherever my children aren’t.

Can you give one piece of advice to people wanting to become a writer?

Take no advice.

Do you read on paper or ebook?

Paper.

One book that changed your life?

Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion made me realise that a lesbian storyline doesn’t doom a book to be non-literary.

One book you have read more than once?

Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.

Your worst ever job?

Chambermaiding.