Graeme Simsion, novelist: 'I loved the intelligent and observant comedy of the Rumpole stories'

Where are you now and what can you see?

At our country shack in Lancefield, an hour's drive from Melbourne, where my wife, Anne Buist, and I do much of our writing. I can see my notebook computer and a glass of wine (it's after 6pm). If I look up I can see fruit and gum trees, cockatoos and blue sky. And kangaroos.

What are you currently reading?

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler.

Choose a favourite author and say why you admire her/him

Sir John Mortimer. I loved the intelligent and observant comedy of the Rumpole stories, which kept coming, but which did not get in the way of him carving a much bigger space in the literary world - drama, screenwriting, memoir…

Describe the room where you usually write

I did! On the deck at Lancefield or, in inclement weather, inside in front of a blazing fire in the living/dining/cooking room. With my wife in the opposite armchair.

Which fictional character most resembles you?

You want me to say Don Tillman [The Rosie Project/Rosie Effect protagonist], don't you? There's a bit of me in Don, but as much of me in Gene and even Rosie. A long time ago I related to screenwriter Daniel Martin in John Fowles's eponymous book. And I wasn't even a screenwriter then!

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

Bob Dylan. Still doing creative work, still exploring his limits and his art into his seventies. A nod to Leonard Cohen for the same reason. And I love their work.

Graeme Simsion's paperback edition of 'The Rosie Effect' is out now. He will be at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature on Saturday 7 March at 1-2pm