What can you tell our readers about your short story Gold Medal Day?

It's a story of a woman who lives on Exhibition Road - she came there   decades ago as a young bride from Pakistan - and was initially filled with   excitement (and apprehension) about living at the cultural heart of   London.  But over the years her life has become smaller and smaller -   until a visit from a young woman who starts talking to her about Lady   Franklin, the first woman to receive a Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical   Society, makes her start to re-think the circumstances of her life.  

Your inspiration began with Exhibition Road, can you expand upon this for   us? 

The original commission was to write a story that was connected   somehow to Exhibition Road - at first I started to run down the list of all   the museums and other cultural spaces on that road, trying to decide what to   focus on; I thought I would set a story around a single artefact or   exhibit.  And then I remembered that I once knew someone who used to live   on Exhibition Road, and I started to imagine what it might be like to live   right next to the V&A, and Royal Geographical Society and Science Museum   etc.  I quickly thought of a character who was annoyed at all the   visitors to the Museums, because they reminded her how few people were   genuinely interested in visiting her, and the story took off from   there.

Your previous book Burnt Shadows was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for   Fiction, how did this make you feel as a writer? 

Delighted.  It's a   prize to which I always pay close attention, and many of the writers I love   have been on the shortlist over the years.  So it's excellent company to   be in.  But of course the main pleasure came from knowing that it would   make a great many more readers aware of my book.

What is your writing background?  

I suppose every writer's   writing background is really a reading background.  I've always loved   books, always wanted to write fiction, from a very early age. Most writers   would probably say that. But in my case there's an added element which is that   many of the women in my family have been writers in one genre or another - my   mother, great-aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother. So I grew up in a world   where books were always important, and someone was always writing   something.

Where did your flair for writing begin? 

I don't know about flair -   but when I was 11 my best friend and I co-wrote a 'novel' (it was 40 pages   long, but it felt like a novel to us) about dog heaven.

You have written both fiction and non fiction, do you have a preference   between the two? 

Fiction, definitely. I think of myself as a fiction   writer who occasionally dabbles in non-fiction.

How did you become involved in the collaboration of stories?

The editor,   Mary Morris, emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in writing something set   around Exhibition Road.  I said yes.  Simple as that.

Who are your favourite reads?

Oh, lots.  Including Ali Smith who is in   the Road Stories collection - and I'm really looking forward to reading more   by Deborah Levy, also in the collection, who has just been longlisted for the   Booker Prize.

What advice can you give to aspiring short story writers? 

I   suppose  the best advice is also the predictable advice - read really   good short stories.  Read Alice Munro, Grace Paley, Ali Smith, Lorrie   Moore...why is it that almost all the best short story writers are women?

What is your next writing project? 

I'm working on a novel set in   Peshawar in the early 20th century.

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