The flatmates Smith and Ralph were originally inspired by my boyfriend and his brother. When I first met them they were living together and I based alot of the characters' domestic behaviour on what I observed with them - tussles with the remote control, staring blankly at the telly until midnight, bitching about women etc. Also, my boyfriend was successful and settled and his brother was creative and struggling. But the comparison ended after the first couple of chapters and they became people in their own rights. Jem has some of my interests but was not based on me - I deliberately made her as physically dissimilar to myself as I could to deflect the temptation to make her 'me' as I would have found that quite restrictive.
Authors usually criticise their own work more than anyone else.
I see some of the dialogue as embarrassingly childish and some of the narrative as deeply immature. If I were given a chance to do it again, I would probably change nearly everything about it. However, I've had so many incredibly heartfelt e-mails and letters from readers who've been moved by the book or touched by it, that maybe all that 'first novelist' inexperience doesn't actually matter. And as a symbol of my change in fortunes and the amazing things that have happened to me in the last two years, I will always have a soft spot for Ralph. It feels something akin to pulling teeth right now and time just goes so unbelievably fast.