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A quick-fire Q&A with Maggie O’Farrell

Sunday Times bestseller and Costa Novel Award-winner Maggie O’Farrell is about to release one of the most talked about books this year, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE. With just over a week until its release, we caught up with Maggie for a quick-fire Q&A…

My most memorable meal…I had just been on the Trans-Siberian express and had been surviving on noodles for a week. When I got off in Beijing I went to this amazing vegetarian Chinese restaurant; it was the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.

The last song I listened to…‘Train Song’ by Vashti Bunyan. She’s a folk singer from the seventies and she kind of disappeared. There were a couple of female folk singers who had big success in the seventies and then just vanished, dropped out of life. It’s a beautiful song.

The book I’ve read the most times…Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

My guilty pleasure…Chocolate, though specifically Charbonnel & Walker violet creams.

The item I have more of than anything else…Pens, I can never not buy pens. And shoes. Actually, probably pens, notebooks and shoes.

The last time I went to the cinema…I went to see Hail, Ceasar! by the Coen Brothers. I love the Coen Brothers; they’re among my favourite filmmakers. Wes Anderson is probably my favourite of them all.

The book (by another author) that I wish I had written…The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The best play I’ve seen…Elsinore by Robert Lepage – he’s a French Canadian dramatist. This is his one-man version of Hamlet. It sounds very unlikely but it was the most beautiful, amazing thing. He played every single part simultaneously; he’s a genius. He managed to do it all with tricks of light and costumes and voices and it was mesmerising.

The one piece of advice I would give my teenage self…Not to give up, it’s all going to get better and also don’t over pluck your eyebrows.

If I had to eat the same meal for dinner every day for the rest of my life it would be…I would eat aubergine and tofu ho fun. Chinese food, I love Chinese food.

Pre-order THIS MUST BE THE PLACE here,

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