Thinking back to November 2025 – could you describe how it felt for Flesh to be awarded the Booker Prize? Did you think you had a chance of winning, and what was your initial reaction on the night?

Ironically enough, given the book’s emphasis on physicality, my initial reaction was a sort of out-of-body moment. In 2016 I was shortlisted but didn’t win, and on that occasion the evening itself was a bit of an ordeal. I didn’t want to have to the same experience again, so I did make an effort to persuade myself I didn’t have much of a chance. That I had quite a bad cold and was basically sedated with flu medication helped with that, and maybe had something to do with the out-of-body moment that followed the announcement too. So there was this moment of silence, and then the reality of it flooded in.

What were the next few hours, days and weeks like? What surprised you the most during that time? 

The team at Penguin Random House, who had been through it all before, gave me a pretty good idea of what to expect. It was going to be ‘pretty full-on’, they said. They weren’t wrong. And I still had that cold: there was a lot of Lemsip involved, a lot of Strepsils. What was very nice was the way that so many people I hadn’t heard from in years, people with whom I’d lost touch over time, sent messages via whatever channels they could.

What’s been the most extraordinary thing about the last year? And what’s been the most challenging?

In a way, the most extraordinary thing has just been the amount of travelling I’ve done. It’s been great. I’ve been to all sorts of places for the first time – from Sweden to Australia – and met all sorts of people. But that’s also been the most challenging thing. While there was a definite feeling that this was a moment that should be seized, it’s been hard to balance with family life – I have three children – and it’s probably just as well that it’s coming to an end now.

Does winning feel like the pressure is off, or that the pressure is now on to build on your success? 

A mixture of the two, probably. It’s perhaps too early to say – all the globe-trotting has left not much time to do any actual writing since last November. I’ll have a clearer sense of it when I finally sit down at my desk again. In a way I hope it’s the latter – that there’s a new kind of pressure. Most of the best things I’ve written have been written under some form of pressure – it seems to work for me.

How have your feelings about the novel changed over the last year? 

Having spoken about it so much, and answered so many questions about it, I feel that I understand it better than I did a year ago! Maybe I understand it almost too well at this point – I could probably write a short book-length critical study of it without too much fuss. It’s really through talking publicly about the book that I develop fully articulated thoughts about it. Those aren’t really there when I’m writing it. So that’s changed. But my deeper feelings about it are the same as they always were, I think.

Translation rights to the book have been sold in over 40 territories. What is it about Flesh that makes it a novel that resonates with readers around the world?

Although it’s rooted in a very specific reality, a very specific time and place, I think it’s finally about fundamental human experiences – physical and emotional – that are the same everywhere, that are common to everyone. And that obviously allows it to travel without too much difficulty. Also, it’s readable and full of dramatic incident, which probably helps too.

Have you been able to write this year, and if so, what are you working on?

As I said, I haven’t been able to do much writing this year. The one thing I have been working on is actually the screenplay for Flesh – I’m collaborating on it with a couple of others. I haven’t ever worked on a screenplay before, so it’s been interesting. It really is its own thing – large swathes of the novel have been cut, and I’m fine with that. Having said all of which, it’s still far from certain that a film will actually be made.

What do you think of this year’s shortlist? 

I think it’s a model shortlist in terms of its balance between established heavyweights – including of course two previous winners – and less widely known writers. I think a prize like the Booker needs to maintain that balance. It needs to have both. And of course, everyone will have books that they feel should have been included – I loved Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House.

If you were giving advice to this year’s nominees, what might it be, having now experienced the journey yourself?

Well two of them are previous winners and a couple of the others are hardly new to this sort of thing, so it feels a bit presumptuous to be giving advice. Roddy Doyle offered me some on the stage last November, about 90 seconds after I’d won – Say no to everything. No doubt that’s taking it too far. But there have been times when I feel I might have been more selective about what I said yes to. (And incidentally Roddy didn’t follow that advice himself: I met him at the Auckland Writers Festival in May, and then again a week later in Sydney.)

Earlier this year, you told ABC.net that you hoped ‘when somebody else wins the Booker Prize in November and everyone wants to talk to them. I can just slip away.’ Is that still the plan?

Very much so! It’s been wonderful and life-enhancing, but at this point I’m kind of looking forward to being a writer again.