Matt Haig

Yeah, at the start I thought, maybe I'm just writing that.

Maybe I'm just writing the world's most depressing book.

Within what we've given.

Yeah, exactly.

I think so.

And I feel like the internet flattens context, doesn't it?

And books can give that back.

You can actually see... You can sympathise in a novel with a character doing a bad or stupid thing.

So novels are where we can reclaim a bit of empathy and compassion, perhaps.

But it's...

I think, you know, I know one of my first memories was definitely falling into a patch of stinging nettles in our back garden when we lived in North Nottinghamshire in a village called Ramby.

It wasn't a picturesque village particularly because we had the A1 just literally beyond our hedge.

And my nan had been looking after me.

My parents were out.

And I fell into a patch of stinging nettles.

And the thing about stinging nettles and being a toddler is if you're trying to get out of the stinging nettles, you're making the situation worse because you're getting stung in your effort to escape.

So I think that was certainly my first unhappy memory.

But it may also be tied to a slightly happier one.

Because my favourite thing to do in the garden, when my nan or my mum was out, like hanging, washing on the line, they would have a little yellow plastic wash basket.

And I used to occupy myself by throwing it in the air and trying to catch it on my head.