This much I know: Rita Ann Higgins

My idea of misery is to be stuck in a house without a book. When I was a child, being a writer never entered my consciousness.

I often wake at 6am. My brain is very active in the morning and afternoon. I’m inclined towards the rubbishy television series and the red wine at night.

Growing up in Ballybrit, Galway, I was one of 11 children but I don’t recall a big struggle for attention. I felt very loved. I didn’t enjoy school. School was overcrowded and cold and fearful and miserable, like something out of Dickens.