Where were you born?
In London, though I have lived in Australia now for over twenty years. My English accent still gets picked up here, but in the UK they immediately recognise I’m Australian as soon as I open my mouth.

You were educated in London?
Yes, and later at the University of Wales where I studied Philosophy and English. I completed a Master’s on Nabokov and later a doctoral thesis on the novel and reception theory.

Where do you live now?
After working in various places in the UK and Australia, I settled in Melbourne where I now live with my partner, Caroline, and run my own agency, Morgan Communications.

Have you always written?

For as long as I can remember. Since I was very young, I’ve been fascinated by language, by how each word exists in multiple, shimmering dimensions. It has a semantic meaning. It has a sound. It has a shape and a weight on the page. The meaning and ‘feel’ of a word change too depending on the context, on who is reading it, and when. Really, you could spend a whole day thinking profitably about one word. Language is the nearest thing we have to magic. It can transform the way we see the world, especially in a novel of course.

How do you write?

I generally work towards a first draft in longhand and type this up when I have a chapter. Then the hard work starts: rewriting repeatedly – building up and cutting back over and over again – until I think it works.