I absolutely adored Anna Blundy's novel, Neat Vodka, so I'm thrilled she's answered our questions (even if it did take me a little while to put them on the site ... ahem). 
Please describe your latest book in 15 words or fewer:
A murder story in Moscow past and present – hangovers, past and present lovers, frozen chicken.
Where do you like to write your books (in bed, a coffee shop, an office)?
I’d love to write them at home in Italy with a bottle of wine, but I usually do most of it at the gym with two different radio stations and news tv blaring.
Your favourite chick-lit book?
Does Jane Eyre count? Anna Karenina? [Um ... I'd say no - Keris]
Otherwise I like the big fat old ones – Jackie Collins and Pearls (who wrote that?). [Celia Brayfield - Keris]
Your favourite female heroine (if different from above!), and why?
Oh, Scarlett O’ Hara, no question. She reminds me of Russian women today – tough, pragmatic, a survivor. And beautiful, if played by Vivien Leigh. I’m also in love with Eloise, the little girl who lived at the Plaza. I spent a lot of time in flashy hotels by myself when I was little (staying with my war correspondent father) and I remember going up and down in the lifts all day long like Eloise and pretending it was important. Both Scarlett and Eloise are fundamentally alone but they’re not going to let it get them down.
What tips would you give to any of our readers who want to become writers?
Don’t pretend to be someone else when you’re writing. I find a lot of people think you have to write differently to how you speak or, at least, think. It ends up pompous and strange.
What are you reading at the moment?
A lot of Freud for an M.A. I’m starting in September, actually! [Told you this interview was late! Hope it's going well, Anna! - Keris] And The Wandering Jews by Joseph Roth and Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam. And, honestly, Anna Karenina in Russian and something by Banana Yashimoto translated into Italian – La Cucina. Crazy but all true.
What are you working on now? (If you can give us a hint!)
A television series about Russians in London called Londongrad. And a big, sexy chick-lit thing also about rich Russians – The Oligarch’s Wife. A novel.
What question have you never been asked in an interview, but think you should have been? (Tell us the question and answer it too, if you like!)
Well, I spend a lot of time thinking about the huge questions – God, love and death. I used to be an evangelical atheist but you get cleverer as you get older and I now think that absolute certainty about anything is pretty naïve.
Thanks, Anna!
