OLIVIA LAING IS one of the best non-fiction writers at work today. Her first book To the River, was a book of the year in the Evening Standard, Independent and Financial Times and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Dolman Travel Book of the Year. She is the former Deputy Books Editor of the Observer and writes for a variety of publications, including the Observer, New Statesman, Guardian and Times Literary Supplement. Her latest book The Trip To Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking is enthralling journey across America, examining the links between creativity and drink in the work and lives of six extraordinary men: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever and Raymond Carver. She took the time to answer our Questionnaire.

1. Are you happy?

I’m lying in bed in a hotel room in the Lower East Side. It’s snowing and the sky is lavender. So yes, very.

2. What are you reading at the moment?

Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts, and the catalogue of Surround Audience, a show at the New Museum about art and technology.

3. What was your worst job?

Filing for an accountant was a fairly low point.

4. How many hours do you work each day ?

All of them.

5. Town mouse or country mouse?

City rat.

6. Does love bring happiness or misery?

I have no idea.

7. Mp3 or vinyl, real or e book?

iPod/real books.

8. What are your three greatest pleasures?

The East River/dahlias/bourbon.

9. Do you believe in the nap?

I am the crowned queen of the nap.

10. What advice do you have for young people?

Don’t let fear stop you/fuck all those motherfuckers.

Olivia’s new book The Lonely City, will be published by Canongate in spring 2016. To buy To The River and The Trip To Echo Spring from the Idler Bookshop follow the links on the right.