From her Q & A with Boyd Tonkin for the Independent:
Name a favourite author and say why you like her/himRead the complete Q & A.
John Updike, especially the Rabbit novels. It's his celebration of the everyday – the grace and humour with which he tells the story of an ordinary man.
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Which fictional character most resembles you?
When I'm talking back at a TV programme, Ignatius Reilly in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, shouting "They should all be lashed!" Or else Richard Fords Frank Bascombe (from The Sportswriter), trying to figure out the world while walking the dog.
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Who is your Hero or heroine from outside literature?
I've got a soft spot for Captain Scott [of the Antarctic]. Maybe it's an Irish thing – I've always been fascinated by heroic death.
See Campbell's top ten list of favorite jobs in fiction.
--Marshal Zeringue