Charlie Hill was born in Birmingham, left school at 16, and knows a lot about pubs and playing pool in South Birmingham and elsewhere. He has lived in Adelaide, Australia, spent time in both Pushkar and Kathmandu and has travelled – through Florida, Alabama and Georgia – to New Orleans.

Since having kids he has become willingly domesticated. He still drinks lots of red wine – preferably Barolo or from Rioja – but less Guinness than he used to. He is good at tennis and makes a passable imitation of a right wing-back for a pick-up team that plays in Sparkhill, Birmingham, twice a week.

His literary heroes are Jim Crace, AL Kennedy and Natalie Haynes, not least because they have all said lovely things about his writing. And Fran Lock because she is an astonishing and necessary voice.