Mark, what were you doing before you came to UEA?
I was a window cleaner. I left school and went to study electronics, but I found it wasn't for me so I dropped out and spent a few years doing casual work and living in bed-and-breakfasts and hostels. I met a lot of interesting people. I ended up cleaning windows around the golden triangle area of Norwich. I realised my life was slipping away and I'd not done a lot with it, so I decided to go to University to study English.

Had you always wanted to be a writer?
I used to write poems. Angst-ridden stuff typical of the alienated teenager. Sometimes my dreams would include a future of literary stardom.

So when did you start writing fiction, what brought that about?
When I started my BA in English Literature, I wrote a short story about this prostitute and her pimp, and their adventures getting some money and scoring some drugs. I let a friend of mine read it. She was a writer who had published an anthology of stories at Pen & Inc Press. She told me I was talented and should write more. So I did.

What made you come to UEA?
Practical reasons really. I lived in Norwich and I had a family at the time so travelling to another university would have been difficult.

You came as a mature student?
I was thirty-three when I started at the UEA. I was living with my girlfriend and she had a ten year old daughter. On the holidays from Uni I worked in factories and in the hospital as a cleaner. Much as I didn't like the jobs, I enjoyed meeting people, especially in the hospital where got to talk to old people who'd lived interesting lives. They liked to give it out about the war. I could listen to that stuff all day.

Who taught you while you were at UEA?
Paul Magrs, Patricia Duncker and Michele Roberts. We'd have seminars where we workshopped each other's stories. I think the ethos was that everyone already knows the basics so it's just about improving the skills and finding out what works and what doesn't. And as it was a Masters-level course you also got to study intellectual stuff. I chose psychoanalytical criticism. I'm glad I did that. Then you also got to meet the tutors on a one-to-one basis, and they would give you feedback on your work. I found that useful, especially as I wasn't so confident about my writing and needed someone to pat me on the back regularly and say there there there.

What were you working on at the time?
I saw my project at the UEA as a year's space in which to write as much of a novel as I could. I went on to finish it and it's now published by Canongate. All in all it took me three years. On that first year I wrote a complete draft, but the rest of the time was taken by letting it fester, while I worked a day job, and then editing it slowly. I had an agent who helped me work through it and improve it. I was impatient to get it published but at the same time I knew that it needed to be the best I could make it, so I took my time to do it properly.

How would you describe your experience of being on the MA?
I mostly enjoyed it. Met some interesting people. Learned stuff about writing and the processes we go through.

What happened next for you?
I found an agent soon after leaving UEA and she sold my book to Canongate. I also worked for a while in the mental health field. Then earlier on this year I won an Arts Foundation Award of £10,000. I haven't done any work since then. Just write full time.

Presumably your writing has been interrupted since publication by having to promote ‘Fresh'?
I had to do some readings in Scotland, America and Canada. All the flying around being a star is great. People telling me I was great and feeding me expensive meals. But the hard part was settling back down in front of the computer to carry on writing, realising that this is what I do to earn a living and getting on with it.

What are you working on now?
I'm almost finished my second novel, which should get published next summer. I was fortunate enough to be given a two-book deal by Canongate, so they will also publish this one. It's about a man who has a mental illness and his relationship with his girlfriend. She's having an affair with the man's social worker, and it all ends in tears...

Interview: June 07