Tammy Cohen

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

Nadir: Ipswich nightclub wearing an inflatable sumo suit. Summit: now

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

Dog carrying one of my slippers (Grrr)
Son inhaling contents of fridge
Kitchen table (where I work) strewn with bills and notebooks and receipts
Overflowing laundry basket brought down by other son (Grrr again)
Two books sent by organisers of Stoke Newington Literary Festival (hurrah)
Plate with smear of hummus left from lunch
A million plastic bags stuffed down side of fridge (where do other people keep them?)
Bedraggled basil plant I refuse to give up on
Heavy glass ashtray with tiny tennis playing figures set into the base (don’t ask)

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

Beans, toast, grated cheese and three minutes left over to open a good bottle of red.

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

Jon Stewart (former Daily Show host) – looks, wit and brains, what’s not to like?
Tina Fey & Amy Poehler.
Leonard Cohen.
Nora Ephron, Nora Ephron, Nora Ephron (if I say her three times she’s more likely to come. That’s how this works, right?)

Six things you can't live without ...

Coffee, family, books, chocolate, sunshine, friends.

Five favourite words ...

Blimey. Lugubrious. Home. Gin. No.

Four places you'd run away to ...

New York, our house in Spain, Provence, Cornwall.

Three books you've bought recently ...

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson.
The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford.
(Hugely embarrassingly) my own book The Broken, because I need to send a signed copy to a charity auction and I’ve run out!

Two things that make you rant ...

Other writers’ success. (Only joking)(not really)
People in my house who shall remain nameless overfilling the bin so it’s impossible to get the bag out.

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

Take more risks and be more kind.