One Minute With: Stella Duffy, novelist
Where are you now and what can you see?
In my home in South London. I can see a massive whiteboard covered in ideas.
What are you currently reading?
Three books for a panel on Great Queens – Theresa Breslin's Spy For the Queen; Kate Williams's Young Elizabeth; Karen Maitland's The Falcons of Fire and Ice.
Choose a favourite author, and say why you admire her/him
Margaret Atwood for consistently coming up with the goods, for remaining political and engaged, and for her twitter feed.
Describe the room where you usually write
A bright, light office in our house.
Which fictional character most resembles you?
There have been times when it might have been preferable for me to keep quiet, but I was brought up to believe truth is all. Empress Theodora from my last two books is not fictional, but she had a tendency to speak up, no matter what the consequences.
Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?
A toss-up between the feminist foremothers, those who came before me in coming out, and anyone who works for equality, so can I have Mary Wollstonecraft, Martina Navratilova and Barbara Castle?
Stella Duffy's ' The Purple Shroud', is published by Virago
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