Author Gillian Philip talks books

What's more compelling to read: the first line or the last line in a book? The last line - if I've got that far, I'm compelled to finish. If the start isn't compelling, I'll stop right there. Men writing romantic fiction. Good or bad? Great! Men can be really romantic, and often in that brusque, deadpan way I find incredibly attractive. In fiction, that is. If you were stranded on an island with three good books, what would they be… The Mapp & Lucia books (a bound set!) by EF Benson; TH White's The Once & Future King; a huge poetry anthology.   Would you leave a book halfway to start another? I often have, but shouldn't. It's too tempting to give in to fresh new characters' flirting. I often write two or three at once because of deadlines. Three overrated authors in present times. Any three authors of the recent teen-lust-vampire fiction - the ones with hardly any story.