One Minute With: Frances Fyfield, crime writer

Fyfield says she writes in 'a second floor room, overlooking the sea'

Where are you now and what can you see?

A second floor room, overlooking the sea, watching people walk their dogs on the beach.

What are you currently reading?

'The British as Art Collectors from the Tudors to the Present', by James Stourton and Charles Sebag-Montefiore. Better than the most extravagant novel.

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

Choosing from current reading, Ruth Dudley Edwards. Her novel 'Killing the Emperors' is a seriously funny satire on the modern art industry. She is always right on the button.

Describe the room where you usually write

As above. The dogs have gone home, and the wind is getting up.

Which fictional character most resembles you?

I empathise with Catherine Morland, in [Jane Austen's] 'Northanger Abbey'. "No one who had ever seen Catherine in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine… She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught: and sometimes not even then."

Who is your hero/ heroine from outside literature?

Whoever invented buttons.

Frances Fyfield's new novel is 'Gold Digger' (Sphere)