Q&A with Teresa Solana April 2020

- Where you are currently living and are you needing to self-isolate in your country? This one would be useful if you are not sending a video. 

I live in Oxford, so I had to self-isolate at home with my family.

- How are these surreal days influencing your normal writing process?

I am writing a new novel and it is very difficult for me to concentrate. I'm constantly reading the news, checking Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp... I am also very concerned for my family and friends living in Catalonia, and especially for my mother, who is 84 years old.

- What are the little things that are getting you through this extraordinary time? 

Watching films and eating popcorn with my family, exercising with my daughter, being in contact with my friends… and books, of course!

- If you had to isolate yourself with one other writer, who would it be and why?

Definitively, Agatha Christie, preferably in her beautiful house in Wallingford. She is a very interesting character, as a woman and as a writer. And she was also a nurse…

- Which historical writer would you find it difficult to be self-isolating with? And why?

Charles Dickens. I enjoy his novels, but I think he was a little grumpy. And he had too many kids…

- Do you have any local stories of kindness or good deeds that you can share?

The neighbours in my street are in contact via e-mail and have arranged a system to help old and vulnerable people with shopping.

- What are you currently reading for pleasure?

Killing Commendatore, by Murakami.

- Is there a local dish or comfort food that you are eating more regularly at the moment, to get you through these turbulent times?

 Surely, I’m eating too much cakes… Red wine and gin-tonics also help!