Diana Evans is the author of 26A, winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. Evans is a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing MA and has published short fiction in a number of anthologies. She has worked as a journalist and arts critic for several magazines in the United Kingdom, and writes regularly for the Independent and Stage. Evans lives in London.

1. What are you reading right now?

Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller, that very pretentious, very famous and very brilliant book that thrives on wrong-footing its readers; a new British author called Tiffany Murray; a collection of stories by A L Kennedy called Now That You’re Back; and Harry Potter, the first one (in page-long instalments to my daughter, who is fascinated by the picture of the wizard on the back cover).

2. Do you write to music? If so, what was the soundtrack for 26a?

I sometimes write to Miles Davis. Some very deathly and difficult parts of 26a were written to Tracy Chapman, particularly the songs, ‘I’m Ready’ and ‘The Promise’.

3. How has your recent foray into motherhood changed your writing?

Well, talking of music, I used to find it almost impossible to write to music apart from Miles Davis. Now, out of bare necessity (my daughter often falls asleep to music), I’m finding I can write to almost anything, and in fact it helps my zone in on the work. I write now in much shorter instalments because there is less time.

4. I remember walking back to our respective cabins one evening after dinner at Hedgebrook. I asked you what it was like to be an identical
twin. You described going to an outdoor market with your twin sister and picking up a nectarine. You said the nectarine was twice as sweet,
because the two of you were eating it together. I thought it was an excellent way of explaining a bond that, for most of us, is impossible
to imagine. How does the idea of twin-ship inform your novel?

Twin-ship, and by association, two-ness, is at the heart of 26a. I wanted to try and encapsulate what it was like, how it felt to be a twin, to have this other person in your life who was also, in a way, your other self existing outside of you, in another body; and the access this gave you to a kind of extra dimension to life that meant you experienced everything with double impact. At the same time, the book is also about the conflicts that arise in such a relationship when the notion of individuality becomes more and more alluring, and necessary, as you grow older.

5. What’s your favorite book from childhood?

John Fowles’ The Magus was the first book I read with any real passion (as in, sitting in your bedroom for a whole weekend reading it and only breaking for food, toilet and sleep). I also used to love Enid Blyton.

6. What’s your favorite West London eatery?

The Grain Shop on Portobello Road, a rustic, grainy place where they serve yummy healthfood in plastic containers that you can sit down and eat two doors down in the Mau Mau Bar if you buy a drink!

7. What other titles were in the running for your book before you decided on 26a, and why did 26a seem like the perfect fit?

It was originally – practically until it was close to being finished – called Seraph. I changed that because it seemed a little too ethereal by that time and I wanted something more spunky. Then it became The Best Bit, which my agent was dubious about. We had a discussion and she suggested quite brilliantly 36a, as the twin’s loft was originally called in the book. 36a, of course, is a bra size, and this would’ve caused problems, and hence it became 26a. I liked it because it was different, memorable, and very specific to Georgia and Bessi’s twin world.

8. You’re about to go on tour in Britain and Canada. What question would you least want an audience member at a reading to ask?

What’s it like to be a twin? I had to write a whole book to answer that question and I find it almost impossible to describe it adequately in a few words.

9. Let’s say someone fell in love with your book and wanted to show his or her appreciation by bringing a gift of a food item to one of the readings. What item would be most likely to inspire your everlasting gratitude?

A flapjack of course (preferably bakewell flavour). Or a nectarine, but it would have to be exactly the right ripeness, and that’s not easy.

10. What’s in your attic? If you don’t have one, what’s in your hall closet?

I don’t have an attic. The cupboard in the hall is hot and contains towels, sheets and other such riveting items.

Click here to see a video clip of Diana Evans talking about her debut novel, 26a.

author photo by Charles Hopkinson, courtesy of The Guardian