It seemed to me that Lasse Hallstrom did manage this successfully. Kevin Spacey, lithe and nimble in real life and most of his roles, showed the full breadth of his acting talent and played Quoyle, a heavy, overweight, fumbling, clumsy fellow, powerfully and convincingly – I was delighted.You’re often portrayed like a pioneer – cutting wood, driving trucks, fishing, canoeing. Is this accurate?Alan Stenning, by e-mailI am certainly not a pioneer, but have lived most of my life in rural places where chopping wood, driving trucks and fishing is standard. This is a traditional way to live life in mid-America that has, because of commercialisation and progress, become viewed as representing a pioneering spirit, but to me this is simply not the case.What do you do with all your money?Harry Thomson, by e-mailMy private finances are none of your business.What research did you do for That Old Ace in the Hole?Patricia Curtis, LondonPassive and active research for That Old Ace in the Hole took several years and dated back perhaps 10 years when, in frequent crossings of the Panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, I was always struck by the region’s unique and extraordinary character. When I finally decided to work on a book set in the Panhandles, I rented a small house for six months on the back of a ranch in Lipscomb, Texas. I used it as a base camp for exploratory side-trips that took in back-roads, local museums, a cock fight, the Alibates flint quarries, cattle auctions, local dances, a tour of a carbon black plant, windmill repair, cattle roundups and brandings, rodeos, sightings of burrowing owls at prairie dog villages, plant identification, walks to see ancient buffalo wallows, visits to Larry McMurtry’s Booked Up, a fabulous bookstore complex in Archer City.Aside from the six-month residency, I made many short trips down into the Panhandles in different seasons to experience the temperature and weather extremes, something no one could imagine or appreciate fully unless they sampled them first hand. I took hundreds of photographs, made sketches and filled notebooks with dialogue phrases specific to the area, which add the flavour and colour that I believe lends the novel authenticity.Is it true you’re a good hunter? What do you hunt?Karen Hart, GuildfordI no longer hunt.

I can afford to buy my food, and the main pleasure in hunting was always stalking and tracking, and that I can do without toting a heavy gun. I took a course in tracking at the Yellowstone Institute last year and it has very much enriched my outdoor hours. To me it is more important and more entertaining to see the wildlife around me than to decimate it.When your first books came out, I remember you said you had thousands of stories stacked up in your head. What’s the next one to be let out?Ian Branwell, LondonI still have multitudes of stories stacked up in my head but there is very little likelihood that I can write more than a few of them. So the short stories seem more attractive than tackling full-length novels.Has fame made it easier or harder to write?Penny Ashby, Milton Keynes”Fame” has made little difference in writing for me. I live in a place where people couldn’t care less whether I write or twirl plates on the end of a broomstick for a living. So my life has remained rather normal and quiet, a state that certainly enables a writer to work unhindered and in a focused fashion.Are your characters autobiographical?Mick Fall, WellsMy characters are not autobiographical except in tiny instances – the minor details of life such as seeing the face of someone in an approaching car illuminated when they flick on their cigarette lighter.

In That Old Ace in the Hole specifically, the characters are not based on real people except in a remote way, as composites of human behaviour, with some physical descriptions based on old photographs. Some anecdotes and incidents have been extrapolated from historical records and regional histories.I was very struck by the last line of The Shipping News – “And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery.” In your experience, does it?Pippa Drake, Chipping NortonWell, yes. Love does sometimes occur without pain or misery, thank goodness.You’re very concerned with questions of conservation vs development in your books: are you involved in campaigning on any environmental causes yourself?Ron Walter, St AlbansI am not much of an environmental activist, while I certainly do have strong views on many of the issues involved. I suppose the stories I write are as far as I go in waving the banners of conservation and care of natural resources, and hopefully this more subconscious kind of message will register with people in a meaningful and helpful way.What happened to the “E” before Annie? Did it just fall off or did it start to annoy you?Ben Hickman, BrightonThe “E” became superfluous.