about inspiration is tricky. The implication is it's confining and suggests, too, that there's something outside the story that prompted the story in the first place. "I can't think of a single case in 13 novels where that was true," he says. "Why is it that Billy is born a bisexual and his life is guided by these two brave transsexual women? Nothing inspired that. That was the beginning." In the novel there is a line: "We are formed by what we desire." Perhaps there is another way into the question. Was he formed by what he desired? There is a long pause. There is the sound of him chewing gum as he sits, back straight, hands folded in lap, staring straight ahead at the road. Thinking. "I wouldn't make the case that there wasn't anything particularly special about my pre-sexual desires. In the Fifties sexual desire was more far-ranging because sexual activity didn't exist. It wasn't allowed. Your sexual experience was entirely what you imagined. I don't think there's anything very unusual. I had crushes on certain older boys that I hoped would pass; and they did. They were strong enough to give me sympathy for boys for whom those feelings would not pass. I had crushes on girls my own age and their mothers. Thinking about this age -- 14, 15 -- it's an age when you fantasise about everything because you've had nothing. I would say it was not unusual. "If someone would say 'oh no, I