Let s just say that my family history, and the relationships within it, are as colourful as anyone's. I began by wanting to write the historical truth then realised that was impossible because it would prove far far too wounding to far too many people. The obvious advantage to this approach is that the end result, being less specifically about my family, is more likely to strike emotional chords with all sorts of readers about all sorts of families. And yes, that was a very cowardly and evasive answer. That s OK I will forgive you.
Most writers do want to retain some measure of privacy.
I think it's both artificial and dangerous to try to treat any of these in isolation as I was saying earlier about gay children. I have profound misgivings about the current craze for psychotherapy in its various manifestations because it seems to simplify a person s emotional history in its hunger for causes and reasons and to encourage unhelpful externalising and blaming where a little personal rebuilding would be more useful. That said, the novelist in me is fascinated by therapy and its mixed effects. I also suspect that fiction provides a more helpful, because less limiting, therapeutic resource. Miles off course now.