Phil Rickman

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

So when am I going to get some actual royalties?

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

(Actually, I do it standing up.)  Hills,  Paul Klee print, Impression of Nick Drake by Gareth Griffiths, infrared shot of Cascob Church by John Mason, clockwork robot, terracotta St Patrick’s breastplate, Washburn parlour guitar, calendar from New Mexico, black crow from Seattle.

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Ewes’ cheese butty (look, we’re all creative in our different ways, OK?)

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Alfred Watkins, Dion Fortune, John Lennon, Wm Shakespeare, John Dee, JMW Turner, Fred West (for research only, of course) 

Six things you can't live without ...

Carol (wife), dog, loaded bookshelf, guitar, open views, toast.

Five favourite words ...

Peripheral, transcendent, numinous, serendipitous, twat.

Four places you'd run away to ...

Avebury, Castlerigg, Long Meg and her daughters, Coleman’s Meadow.

Three books you've bought recently ...

Two biographies of Katherine Parr (research) and Light of the World by James  Lee Burke (which I might even have time to read by Christmas)

Two things that make you rant ...

Government-sanctioned cruelty. People who look down their elitist noses at the idea of a ghost story on the periphery of a crime novel.

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Discount all that crap about the best years of your life.