"The circulation in my arms is still coming back: my hands have gone pins and needles," he says, undoing his cuffs, pushing up his sleeves, revealing some marks where the vines pressed into his skin, though it's not broken at least.

"I always did seem more in my element when it came to fiction, though one sometimes finds the best inspiration from facts and the questions that they incite," he admits. "What is it that they say, to stick with what you know when you are writing?" he adds, slightly self-deprecating