'That romanticised idea of writing a novel'

‘I am wary of that romanticised idea of writing a novel, you just have to pick up a pencil or a pen and open your laptop and it is far more boring. It's not glamorous. I learnt that I can write anywhere. You do need time and space but you don't need a cottage in Wales, I'd say...

The Miniaturist was written under cloak of darkness with nothing to lose and now I am No 1 in The Sunday Times charts and it's a bit mad, but you are still the same person, the same writer, you have to remember that nothing has changed. That's what I am telling myself.'

Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist