1. Hold Still is inspired by something that happened to me. I was taking photographs of my son jumping from high rocks into the sea while on holiday. Through the viewfinder, it seemed as if he was going to dash his brains out any second. I went cold thinking, "What if I snapped the moment he killed himself? How would I feel?"
Hold Still
2. I've interviewed a lot of celebrities. My favourites were Michael Douglas, who was charming and intelligent, and Bruce Willis, who seemed to me totally down to earth. The worst was one Hollywood actor, who, having listened to him drone on vaingloriously for over an hour, I switched off my tape recorder and told him truthfully I needed to be elsewhere. "Well," he said huffily, "that's never happened to me before."
3. There's nothing more exciting than breaking a news scoop. My day job is being a journalist on The Daily Telegraph. Once, I was holding a story that was so hot it was quivering in my hands. I almost panicked, not knowing what to do with it. The story flashed round the world that same day.
4. I once found myself alone in a room with Francis Bacon, William Burroughs and JG Ballard. Three of the greatest iconoclasts of the 20th century and I was tongue-tied as to what to say. "Are you a writer?" Burroughs asked. Not really, I gulped. "You will be," he drawled in his deadpan way.
5. I used to box in New York City. The highest my career got was when the manager of Bonecrusher Smith - who fought Tyson - spotted me sparring and asked, "Who's that kid with the killer left hook?" Sadly, there was not much call for asthmatic, short-sighted boxers at the time.
6. Everything in my thrillers I try to experience first-hand. Research is important for me. I visited Albania for Hold Still, so everything you read I actually experienced. I also visited a morgue, a high-security data centre and interviewed a bereavement abroad support group as part of research.
7. Jean-Michel Basquiat once gave me a painting. A mutual friend knew what a fan I was. I still admire Basquiat tremendously; it's almost as if his paintings are trying to teach us a new language.
8. I brought up my children as a single parent. I got sole custody of my two boys after my wife became too ill took after them. I imagined that my newly-single life would be a riot of air stewardesses and parties. The reality was Thomas the Tank Engine and feeding the ducks in the local park. In a way, I'm strangely grateful because, unlike many dads, I watched my children grow up.
9. My wife and I met playing bridge. After a decade on my own, I had pretty much given up the idea of meeting anybody. And then of course I did meet somebody the moment I was not looking anymore.
10. The meaning of life is to serve somebody. As Bob Dylan said, "You gotta serve somebody." I don't mean in a servile way but working for something that is bigger than you, whether it's a God or a cause or just your family. And I don't even like Bob Dylan.
Hold Still is published by Urbane Publications, price £7.99