Rose George

Rose George

1. When were you happiest?

All sorts of times and places. In the middle of the Atlantic in winter on a cargo ship watching ice break on the St. Lawrence River; at the top of a hill in France with borrowed lurchers. For example.

2. What is your principal defect?

Negativity

3. What makes you depressed?

Cruelty, climate change, my own negativity (spot the vicious circle).

4. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Hockey legs

5. What is your favourite word?

Afoot

6. What is your most unappealing habit?

Impatience with people

7. What is your favourite smell?

Cut grass

8. What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Alcohol

9. Who are your favourite writers?

All sorts. Rebecca West, Fred Vargas, Italo Calvino, Dante (when I could understand him), Ryszard Kapuscinski, Martha Gellhorn, David Mitchell, Michel Faber, early Dick Francis, Hilary Mantel, Andrea Camilleri, Albert Camus.

10. What is the worst job you've done?

Working as an intern for Associated Press and having to get the daily Vatican report. Or cleaning commodes in an old people’s home. Pope or poo: It’s a toss-up.

11. When did you last cry, and why?

Recently. Hormones, I hope.

12. What do you most value in your friends?

That they stick with me and that they are fabulous.

13. What gift would you most like to possess?

A sunnier disposition and the ability to run a marathon

14. What was your most embarrassing moment?

Saying something rude in primary school without realising the headteacher was right behind me. I think it was about the headteacher.

15. What is your most treasured possession?

People who love me. But they’re not possessions. Brain, then.

16. What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?

You have really bad vibes.

17. If you could edit your past, what would you change?

I’d give my younger self some of the confidence I have now.

18. If you could go back in time, where would you go?

I’d rather go forward and come back again

19. What is your greatest fear?

That the world is irreperably damaged

20. What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

People hurt easily; be more careful