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#  Nick Lake - Author 

Nick Lake is 29 years old and a children's book editor at HarperCollins. He lives in London with his English teacher wife, Hannah.

  
**Nick Lake Q &A:**

**Previous occupations:**  
Student, and then book editor. Which I still am.  
  
**Favourite job:**  
Being a book editor. No one told me at school that there was a job where you got paid for being a fan of writers and writing.  


**High school and/or college:**

I went to High School in Luxembourg, and I went to Oxford University after that for a degree and then a fairly pointless masters. In phonetics, of all things.

****Name of your favourite composer or music artist?**  
** The Pixies.  
**  
**Favourite movie:**  
** I usually lie and go for something clever like _Vertigo_. But really it's _True Romance_.****How would you describe your life in only 8 words?**  
** I would use the word "busy" eight times.

**What is your motto or maxim?  
**To paraphrase the existentialists - life is what you make it. Which amounts to a practical kind of karma, I suppose.

**How would you describe perfect happiness?  
** A fire, a good chair and a new Stephen King book. Or the moment the soundchecks finish and the band take to the stage. Or sunset on the mountains, with weary feet, and the lights of a pub ahead. Or the sound of a breakbeat. Or a very sweet tea, anywhere in the Middle East, at any time of day.

**What’s your greatest fear?  
** Not being good.

**Which living person do you most admire?  
** Haruki Murakami. Stephen King. Anyone who works for Medecins sans Frontieres or Amnesty International.

**What are your most overused words or phrases?  
** "Apparently".

**If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?  
** The abillity to play a musical instrument well. Also, the ability to speak all languages fluently.

**What is your greatest achievement?  
** Meeting my wife.

**If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?  
** I wouldn't mind being Simon Cowell. I could make _The X-Factor_ go away. Not to mention R&B flavoured pop music.

**What trait is most noticeable about you?  
**I have no idea. My hair? It's usually quite big, because I keep forgetting to have it cut. I look like the freakish son of Tom Hanks and David Hasselhoff.

**Who is your favourite fictional hero?  
** Sally Lockhart.

**Who is your favourite fictional villain?  
**Steerpike. (Also hero.)

**If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?  
** I'd like to meet Shakespeare and I'd ask him how to write better.

**What is your favourite occupation, when you’re not writing?  
**Reading? Actually probably sleeping, to be honest.

**What’s your fantasy profession?  
** Bestselling and universally admired author.

**What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?  
**Compassion. Empathy. Humour.

**If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?  
** Chocolate, in any form.

**What are your 5 favourite songs?  
** Hmmm. "Beat It"; "Here, There and Everywhere" by the Beatles; "U-Mass" by the Pixies; "Heartbeat" by Annie and "Etched Headplate" by Burial**  
  
On Books and Writing:  
  
Who are your favourite authors?  
**Haruki Murakami. Stephen King. Neil Gaiman. Margaret Atwood. Joan Didion. Ismail Kadare. Philip Reeve. Philip Pullman. Meg Rosoff.

**What are your 5 favourite books of all time?**

Tough one. I guess... _Middlemarch_ ; _Coraline_ ; _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ ; the collected works of Shakespeare... and _Little, Big_ , by John Crowley - the single most unfairly overlooked, beautiful, miraculous and magical book I know.

**Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?  
** I wouldn't presume to think of myself as someone anyone might look to for advice! But I suppose I'd tell them to read as much as possible, in as many genres as possible.

**What comment do you hear most often from your readers?  
** "You're very... imaginative aren't you." I think they mean I'm strange.