Includes index.

"Writing Talk includes interviews with nineteen well-known contemporary writers, exploring the ways in which they research and find their original ideas and the way they interpret, hone and develop them. The conversations examine the roles of technique, craft, language, reading, memory, serendipity, habit and persistence. They offer technical detail about the creative process and give unique insights into the borderlands between genres as well as offering rich, personal insights and universal resonances. A thorough introduction surveys the reasons why we are intrigued by the mysteries of individual writing practice and how these illuminate critical attitudes to literature and performance. Interviewees: Alan Ayckbourn, Iain Banks, Helen Blakeman, Louis de Bernières, Sarah Butler, Andrew Cowan, Jenny Diski, Patricia Duncker, David Edgar, Tanika Gupta, Richard Holmes, Hanif Kureishi, Bryony Lavery, Toby Litt, Kareem Mortimer, Michèle Roberts, Jane Rogers, Willy Russell, Sally Wainwright"-- Provided by publisher.