From her Q & A with Boyd Tonkin for The Independent:
Choose a favourite author and say why you like her/himRead the complete Q & A.
I would probably say Julian Barnes or Muriel Spark. I read both authors' works when I was younger and I've never got over that affection you have for the first books you read that really blow you away.
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Which fictional character most resembles you?
My brother and I have a joke about me being Miss Jean Brodie. I work as a teacher part-time, which inspired the comparison, I think.
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Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?
Mary Kingsley. She was a Victorian lady adventurer who looked after her elderly parents, then her brother, and when they died, she went off to West Africa – an ordinary Victorian women with her umbrella.
--Marshal Zeringue