Q&A with Adele

Are you Connie in Playing Away?
No Connie lives in a terraced house in Clapham and I live in Chiswick. She also lacks self awareness.

So Playing Away is not an autobiographical account of adultery?
Oh, I see what you mean. No.

But there must be elements of Connie that you relate to.
Out of all my characters in Playing Away I most relate to Lucy. Admittedly she's braver and sharper than I am. I take several hours to come up with the one liner that she bites out within seconds. I love Lucy.

If Playing Away isn't your personal account of adultery what made you decide to write about infidelity?
During the late 90's I read all the London singleton twenty something novels. I loved them but wondered where the readership went once they stopped searching for the perfect partner and the perfect Prada. I did a bit of research with the issues concerning the thirty-somethings; it turned out that after the confetti had settled they often simply began the search again, this time for a less perfect partner and this season's Prada. I thought that was interesting.

Do you find writing and being a writer easy?
On the whole yes. The stories and dialogue just come to me in a way that I find impossible to describe. On a good day I know I am the luckiest woman in the world as I'm paid to do something I enjoy and something which, hopefully, makes other people's lives a bit brighter for a short time. On a bad day I can feel a bit lonely and dispirited. There's nothing more soul destroying than being dissatisfied with your own work.

How has being a writer changed your life?
I don't have to commute in rush hour. I'm more content than I have ever been. The two facts are probably not unrelated.