Jo Baker / Features / Untitled Books

"I don’t ever feel jealous of a good book. I’m just grateful for it."

Photograph: © Andy Hockridge

Jo Baker

Jo Baker is the author of The Mermaid's Child, Offcomer, The Telling and her latest, The Picture Book. She teaches creative writing at Lancaster University, escapes with Pride and Prejudice, and can't wait for the next Hilary Mantel.

Where are you right now?
At my desk, at my day job. I've angled the computer screen so that if anyone walks in they won't see that I'm skiving.

Where do you write?
In a local coffee shop, discretely, in a corner.

How do you write?
With a cheap, leaky fountain pen and A4 narrow feint and margin paper.

What keeps you writing?
It just sorts my head out for me. It has the effect of shuffling the deck, tamping it down. I need to do it.

Who do you write for?
It depends. Different people at different times. Sometimes I'll write a line and it'll feel like a message to someone I maybe haven't seen in years. Sometimes it's like that with whole characters.

Do you discuss your work with anyone?
Not at the start; I'm too wary of 'talking it out' so there's no life left in the story when I come to write it. Later on, it's absolutely essential; I'll give a draft to a trusted reader, get their impressions. Then I'll widen the circle again after that.

How do you know if your work is good?
If, when I'm writing, it's like being a kid playing out on a summer's day - if I only come back to reality when I get hungry or it gets dark.

Do you have any unwritten characters in mind?
Yes. It's crowded in here. Things can get out of hand.

Which book do you wish you'd written?
I don't ever feel jealous of a good book. I'm just grateful for it

What is your literary guilty pleasure?
I re-read Pride and Prejudice a lot. I tell myself it's for the brilliance of the storytelling, the clarity of characterization, the precision of the prose, yada yada yada, but in fact it's just sheer escapism.

Which writer made you want to write?
I'm not sure if it was a particular writer that made me want to write; I remember writing stories before I was really aware of individual authors. Having said that, as a child, I re-read Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising books so often that the pages came adrift and the spines are now like papier mache. It's extraordinarily rich storytelling, full of myth and invention and literary allusion. Those books made me alert to good writing.

And then there was a moment, years ago, at a literary festival, when a really well-respected writer, who I won't name, read a short story that I thought just wasn't very good. It wasn't a disaster, it just didn't move me; it didn't show me anything in a new way, either about the world or language or the short story form itself. And that gave me this sneaky little feeling that I could possibly one day do something better than that...

Who's the most exciting author writing today?
In terms of simply 'I can't wait for the next book' - for me, it has to be Hilary Mantel.

If you weren't writing you'd be...?
Miserable.

What next?
I'm just about to quit my day job. So I'll be huddled at the back of the coffee shop, with an A4 pad and a leaky pen.

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The Picture Book by Jo Baker is published by Portobello Books.

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Monday, 5 September, 2011