'My fondest memories as a child is a stack of books under the Christmas tree'

People never buy me books as presents. (They never allow me to join their book clubs either, which is a story for another day. I hope it’s because they think I’ll insist on actually reading the book rather than the alternative, which is that everyone assumes I am minus craic.)

I’ve noticed a steady decline in the number of book-presents I’ve received in recent years, and the beginning of this trend precisely correlates to when I published my first novel.