There has been an awful lot of weather about and when I went to bed last night - well, in the early hours of this morning to be exact, the last thing I read was a warning of snow, frost and freezing temperatures.

I sit working here with my window open looking out into the Cotswold fields and hills bathed in sunshine under a vivid blue sky. I went out to post a couple of letters and it was chillier than it has been of late - ie I needed a coat. But that was it. Perhaps it is on its way, perhaps it is only oop t'north ... but for now, winter still has not struck.

I have been deep in Gullywith which is reaching a critical point, and also plotting the new Serrailler crime novel, so I have been very aware of the weather because I glance up at it so often and when the wind howls it howls round my workroom like a prowling beast. Peaceful today though.

One of the books I read until the covers came off when I was in my teens and aspiring to be a novelist was a book of The Paris Review Interviews with writers. I wanted to know not so much how they did it in terms of where their ideas came from as in terms of pen or, as it was then, typewriter, morning or midnight. I see there is another collection of these fascinating in-depth interviews just out. I don`t know why it should be of interest to others - pen or typewriter, morning or midnight - but it is, it is. It`s a question I am always asked when being interviewed.

I used to say pen and morning. Now I say pen sometimes, laptop sometimes - and any old time, morning, midnight = though never afternoon. There is something sleepy and dead and brain-fudged about the period between 2 and 5 and I am often having a nap. If you work until three in the morning, you need a kip at three in the afternoon.

I am also always asked if I aim to write so many hundreds or thousands of words before I allow myself a cup of coffee or a break. Perish the thought. I work for as long as I feel like it, sometimes I do a thousand words, sometimes five thousand and when I want a cup of coffee I have one. Heavens, it isn`t penal servitude.  I do have one little habit which I learned years ago and I cannot now remember from who. I finish at a point when I really REALLY want to write the next bit.