Do you have a good writing place? Tell us.

I write in my study. Fifteen years after leaving an office, I’m still grateful for the pleasure of being able to work at home. My study has pink and green glass in the window, and is lined – predictably – with bookcases. The white plaster ceiling has Federation motifs: waratahs, lyrebirds. I like the mantelpiece in this room, on which I keep photographs, two green Depression glass vases, and a row of rather creepy little doll faces bought thirty years ago in a St Kilda junk shop. The room also contains a standard lamp with a pink satin shade; it looks like a little girl’s party frock and used to belong to my mother.

Where would you live if you could live anywhere?

Somewhere with good bookshops, warm weather and wild places where my dogs can chase swallows.