Author, Philip Pullman, received an honorary award in 2002, and will be a Visiting Fellow on Brookes' new MA in Creative Writing.

Does everyone nave a novel inside them?

Yes, but they might not be the best people to write it. Everyone has had experiences which, lf they were gathered together and re-thought imaginatively and ordered artistically, would form the substance of a novel, or several novels; but to write that novel would require a talent and discipline which most people neither have nor want.

What's the secret of writing a good book?

Talent, hard work, and luck.

Which of your novels has been the biggest challenge to write?

Whenever you asked me this, my answer would always be the next one. Books are always much easier in retrospect, but each of them has been accompanied by the same quantity of groaning and despair.

Do you ever get writer's block – what’s the cure?

I think it's preposterous to talk about writer's block. Do plumbers get plumber's block? Do doctors suffer from doctor's block? Writing seems to be the only profession which exalts its own inadequacy into a condition that requires sympathy. Of course it's sometimes difficult to think of what to write next – so what? Who said it was going to be easy all the time? The remedy is to put up with it, and keep going until it gets easy again.

Who's your favourite author of all time?

That changes from week to week. At the moment, Thomas Mann would be pretty high up.

Who's your favourite fictional literary hero?

I wouldn't say I liked him, but the most interesting one is God.

What book last made you laugh out loud?

A collection of the journalism of Myles na Gopaleen, Otherwise known as Flann O'Brien.

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

Anybody making a movie of my life would find they ran out of story about 10 minutes in, and had to make the rest up. I would like them to make up a story with lots of adventures in, and I think Harrison Ford would best capture the tough, world-weary, battered and yet impregnable integrity combined with devastating sex appeal which would characterise the fictional me in the story that never happened.

Any words of wisdom for Brookes graduates as they go off to pastures new?

Be sure to leave time in your life for fooling around.