What was your favourite childhood book?

JP: Where the Wild Things Are.

Which book has made you laugh?

JP: Bill Bryson’s In A Sunburned Country

Which book has made you cry?

JP: Most of my own, while I’m writing them.

Which book would you never have on your bookshelf?

JP: The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks.

Which book would you give to a friend as a present?

JP: Anything by Alice Hoffman

Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it?

JP: Vanity Fair

What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?

JP: In no particular order: The Great Gatsby, for its unreliable narrator; The Sun Also Rises, because unrequited love is the greatest story of all; Turtle Moon, because it was my first Alice Hoffman book; To Kill a Mockingbird, because it has the best heroine, and a healthy dose of controversy; and The Paper Bag Princess – a wonderful little picture book I used to read my daughter, about a princess whose kingdom is burned by a dragon, who also carries off her fiancé, Prince Ronald. The princess conquers the dragon while wearing a paper bag – with her wits, instead of strength –and rescues Ronald. When she finds him he says disdainfully that she doesn’t look much like a princess, in her paper bag. She replies that he looks like a prince, but he’s a bum – and she leaves on her own, happily ever after.

What is the worst book you have ever read?

JP: The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks.

Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer?

JP: Gone with the Wind. I memorized huge passages when I was twelve and pretended to be both Rhett and Scarlett (hence I had no boyfriend till I was 15…) I loved that Margaret Mitchell had created a world out of words, and I wanted to do the same thing.

What is your favourite time of day to write?

JP: The morning.

And favourite place?

JP: My office, which is home – in the attic.

Longhand or word processor?

JP: TOTALLY word processor – I type faster than I write.

Which fictional character would you most like to have met?

JP: Scout, from To Kill A Mockingbird.

Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?

JP: Shakespeare. He told all the stories, the rest of us just recycle them.

Which book have you found yourself unable to finish?

JP: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.

What is your favourite word?

JP: Uxorious: excessively fond of one’s wife

Other than writing, what other jobs or professions have you undertaken or considered?

JP: Before I was a writer, I worked on Wall Street, writing bond offering circulars for Standard and Poor & Moody’s. I also worked at a two person ad agency; and as a textbook editor. I taught creative writing in a private school and 8th grade English in a public school. Of the jobs I WISH I had tried: forensic detective (they do what I do, create a story out of details, but theirs are real) and pastry chef – if I made you my French Apple Almond tart, you might think it’s just as good as one of my books!

What was the first piece you ever had in print?

JP: A poem in my grandparents’ community newspaper in Bayside, NY when I was seven.