I’m truly honoured – to sound Bill-and-Ted-ish: we’re not worthy. I’m such a fan of Maeve’s that it’s wonderful to be compared to her in any way. I think perhaps that people make the comparison because we’re both Irish and write (hopefully, in my case) with humour and warmth. She certainly does. She’s a genius. But somebody like Maeve, who writes with such joy, can never truly pack away her laptop. I could never stop writing and I bet she won’t either. It’s such a part of my life that I’d never want to stop.

To be honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that I was a writer who became a journalist as a way to make a living rather than the other way round. I loved the writing and the meeting people parts of journalism, but sitting at my computer all day making stuff up, creating characters and worlds, is what I’ve always wanted to do. The catalyst was my summoning up the courage to start writing. I always say that insecurity and a thin skin are primary requirements for writers, so the first big hurdle is convincing yourself that you can start. Once you start, you’re off. Like horses at a race.

I hope I’ve answered that. Writing was my first love rather than the other way round, but certainly, lots journalists want to write. Journalism is such superb training for writing, as you know. You understand the discipline required and you don’t sob huge angry tears when somebody edits your work, which is pretty important!

I don’t write autobiographically in the sense that I’ve written eight novels and if everything that has happened to my characters had happened to me, then I’d be in a pickle jar in a lab somewhere! Seriously, there’s a part of you in every book in that your beliefs sink in there by osmosis but part of the joy of writing is writing about people totally different to yourself and trying to get inside their heads.

I’ve written about working mothers before but since having kids, I can write with greater authority! Nobody inspired this plot-line. In fact, the idea for the novel came from the concept that women often define themselves by their families/their jobs/their partners and I thought it would be interesting to have characters who lose the things they define themselves by, so they’d have to go back to the beginning and ask ‘who am I, if I’m not a career woman/whatever?’ The working mom thing is part of modern life because it is hard to juggle kids and a career. Speaking from experience, there’s a lot of rushing and racing, and wondering (usually at the most inopportune moments) if there’s anything in the freezer for dinner or if you’re out of nappies. Multi-tasking is part and parcel of motherhood whether it’s working outside the home or inside the home. That said, I think a happy mother is a good mother, whatever she chooses to do. I’m happy to be able to work and be there for my kids, and I’m privileged in that my job means I can work from home, so I’m around most of the time. I certainly hope that I transmit that happiness to my boys. I’m lucky to have great childcare but if childcare is a problem, then this is obviously going to affect how you feel when you leave the house every morning. Women are very hard on themselves and are always trying to do better. We need to let up a little and pat ourselves on the back a bit more. Women are great! Actually, I think that’s the theme that runs through all my books.

When I write, I honestly don't think about putting a cross-section of modern women in my books - I just start developing characters who interest me and it goes from there. People fascinate me, It's incredible fun writing about people who have different experiences than yourself. I sit at my desk and imagine wildly, thinking 'what would it be like to have this fabulous voice (Nicole in What She Wants) and make everyone adore to listen to you?' This would never happen to me, I should point out, due to my abysmal singing voice, so I really had to work at imagining in that case. But I love it. I get so involved in my characters' lives that sometimes when I'm writing, I talk the dialogue as I write it, which probably looks very strange to the window cleaner or anyone else peering in the window.

That's an impossible question! I can never say which of them I identify with most. But there are facets of them I wouldn't mind sharing - there are times when I'd secretly love to be a tough cookie like Sam (What She Wants), because I am absolutely no good at complaining about anything.

No I don't, but the exception was Someone Like You, where I wrote about Alzheimer's because my father had it. That was very difficult because there were times when I wrote about one character's descent into dementia, and I kept crying as I worked. But I wanted to write about it to let people know that dementia isn't just something that happens to very elderly people. My father developed it in his fifties.

I read my horoscope in every paper! Does that count? I believe we can all influence our own lives by what we do, but it's handy when things go wrong to mark it down to destiny. Like when someone doesn't get that job or whatever, you can say 'It wasn't meant to be.'

I've always been a voracious reader and the sort of books I hated most were ones about these gilded, glamorous people who had loads of money, buckets of self-confidence and were stunningly beautiful. They never seemed real to me. So when I started to write, I wanted to write about people who were the opposite of that. My characters are normal people, with problems paying the mortgage and a huge load of ironing waiting to be done. Perhaps that's why the books are successful but I don't know. I'm just so thrilled and overwhelmed that people buy my books at all, to be honest.

Winning the Parker Romantic Novel of the Year award was such a shock that I was genuinely speechless when Tania Bryer announced my name. And as my family would point out wryly, I'm never speechless! I just sat there and did my astonished goldfish performance - mouth open but no sound coming out. It was my second time being nominated and when you're up against fabulous authors like Rosamunde Pilcher, you don't even imagine you'll win. It was a fantastic experience. Actually, all the nominees had been told in advance that the winner would have to stay in London overnight but I was so convinced that it wouldn't be me that I had a seat booked on a flight back to Dublin that evening after the award ceremony. That was one ticket I didn't mind cancelling.

The pressure comes from myself, really. When one book is successful, I get terribly nervous about the next one and worry myself to bits trying to make it better. I am a worrier full stop.

When I was a columnist, I worked for a tabloid paper which meant you had very limited space. When I started writing novels, I had to learn to write lots. On the days when I went into the newspaper office, the sub editors (who lay out newspaper pages) used to go mad because my articles were too long! I worked as the paper's agony aunt for five years but I never used a letter as the basis for a book. This would have been wrong, a betrayal of the people who wrote to me. It did show me that the world is a strange and often sad place, and that truth is genuinely stranger than fiction.

Everybody asks this, usually nervously in case I'm secretly taking notes to put them in my next novel as a horrible person. No, seriously, I don't use real people. I genuinely make the characters up, they are figments of my imagination although when you're writing about your heroines, they seem real to you. When I'm writing a very intense scene, I almost 'become' the person I'm writing about. After a while, the heroines seem like friends to you.

I'm working on my fifth novel with a man as one of the main characters and it's not as hard as I thought. The reason I've never done it before is because there's nothing worse than reading a book written by a man from a female point of view and thinking "no woman would do that".

I plan to but the notebook is usually buried at the bottom of my handbag and I can't locate it, so no. Most writers observe. You can't write about life and about people without watching it. People-watching is certainly one of my favourite hobbies.

Because names are so important and you can instantly transform a character by changing their name, although once I did this on an enormous document by using the 'find and replace' option on my computer. The only problem was, the name I wanted to change was Len, and you'd be amazed how many words have the letters 'len' in the middle. I inadvertently changed zillions of Lens to Stephen, which meant that the entire manuscript was dotted with bits like 'so she reached out a sStephender hand..' when it should have been 'slender hand'. Oops.

Having people think that you loll around on the couch all day eating chocolate digestives and watching Judge Judy. No seriously, working from home is great but people do think it's a howl and that you never do any work. You have to train people not to drop in for coffee all the time. The reality is I love writing and really enjoy what I do. There are days when you feel like an idiot and every second word you write is wrong, but then there are great days when you re-read what you've read and you like it. These are rarer days, I should point out. Talking to journalists is a strange part of being a writer, partly because I was a journalist for so long and can't imagine how my life would be interesting. I have never dated Tom Cruise, do not own a palatial mansion in the Hollywood hills and have never considered a come-back gig at Madison Square Garden.

I adore Jane Austen, Anita Shreve, Maeve Binchy. To be honest, I could be here all day telling you about writers. I never stop reading, which is why I don't spend enough time vacuuming! I'm writing this in my study which is covered in books (a lot of the floor, to be honest!) I love autobiographies and find books about China fascinating. I try and read historical/factual books to educate myself. I obviously didn't pay enough attention in history in school!

Ten years ago I was a spender. Now, I'm a saver. I got a rude awakening one day when I looked in my wardrobe and saw row after row of "I can't live without that" clothes (all of which happen to be black). I don't impulse buy anymore. My father was a saver and I think that, despite my love for shopping, I have inherited that trait. However, I lose all reason when it comes to presents. I am every shop owner's dream at Christmas.

Writing Woman to Woman was the most lucrative in that it started me on the road to a career as a novelist. The publishers were hoping to sell 15,000 of that first novel in Ireland and I thought that was a huge number of books to sell. I still find it hard to believe that it has now sold many multiples of that all over the world.

Twelve years ago, I spent £70 on a Labrador puppy. She was the best investment in the whole world because the love and happiness she's given me over the years has been incalculable.

All of my embarrassing purchases are clothes-related. A vivid, pink velvet jacket from Whistles that makes me look like a piece of soft furnishing tops the current list of horrors.

I'm perfectly happy here. That said, I went to Australia last year and fell in love with the place and the people. Australians have a great quality of life.

I have a fatal passion for costume jewellery and if the makers of Moulin Rouge are planning a sequel and want to line up beaded chokers and dangling necklaces, they know where to come. None of the stuff I have is exactly a sound investment but I love it.

I support the Irish Alzheimer's Society and I am also involved with a society which aims to help improve awareness of Alzheimer's. One of the things I love about being a writer is the chance to do something for charity via short stories. So far, I've written six short stories for charity anthologies. You give your story for free to the organisation and it receives all your royalties.

Money is a great tool for making your life comfortable and paying your bills, but no amount of cash in the world can secure the help of the people you love.

Someone to blow-dry my hair every morning - I have a lot of hair and blow-drying it is a chore; an assistant to compile all the endless bits of paper for my accountant; someone to prepare a fabulous dinner so that I don't have to spend hours rooting around in the freezer/fridge/larder only to realise that I don't have the one vital ingredient for whatever it is that I have decided to cook.