We ask the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018 Shortlisted authors a series of quick-fire questions, in anticipation of the winner announcement on May 8th

We ask our 2018 judges – Jim Crace, Nikesh Shukla, and Kate Summerscale – a series of quick-fire questions on literature, culture, and the judging process…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

Robin: Perhaps since three or four, when I used to visit the bookshop my grandfather worked in, and was enchanted.

Leila: I’ve never thought ‘I want to….

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

Whatever age I was the day my father pointed out to me that being a fighter pilot meant I had to kill people and animals.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer somewhere?

I have a green notebook full of…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

Probably around age 8.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer somewhere?

It sounds unbelievable, but I’ve…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

Not until my twenties, when I wrote my first article for The Guardian and found I loved doing it. I will always be intensely grateful to the editor who commissioned it.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

I didn’t know I wanted to be a writer until I met my wife and then realised I had always wanted to be a writer.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer somewhere?

It was published, but several…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

Six.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer somewhere?

Everything I’ve ever written until 2004 has been published!

What was your favourite childhood…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

Seventeen or eighteen – but it was an ambition I then gave up, and only crept my way back to in the second half of my twenties.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer somewhere?

‘Book’ is too strong a word, but there’s a hand-written, unfinished…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

In the sense of writing stories, as young as I can remember. In the sense of doing it professionally, I think I realised that that was potentially a thing when I was 13, and started quietly wondering if it might be possible from then.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer…

Q. At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?

At the age of 4, when my sister taught me to read and I imagined that reading created the story (or the world) each time we turned the page.

Q. Was your first book published or is it still lurking in a drawer somewhere?

It was published, a collection called Simple Recipes…