I’ve written a few thousand words already and I can feel my impatience to get on with it.” With that in mind she is already thinking about her 10th. But while I find that stuff fun, novels are still my great love.” “I do have various TV irons in the fire though.

Given the success of Apple Tree Yard, would she allow her other novels to be adapted for the screen? “Yes, although I wouldn’t adapt my own work – there should be a law against writers doing that,” she says, laughing. Quichotte by Salman Rushdie, review: a wildly entertaining return to form “The publishing world still has a long way to go. She is similarly outspoken about the publishing industry, having crowdfunded in 2017 to raise money for three BAME scholarships on the University of East Anglia’s creative writing MA programme. Look for example at a writer such as Amanda Craig – she writes the kind of big state-of-the-nation novels that should see her up there with the likes of Sebastian Faulks but she hasn’t been promoted that way.” For many decades, prize culture gave male writers a gravitas that it wouldn’t extend to women. While she describes herself as “very lucky not to have had a mid-career period in the wilderness” she is also keen to highlight how many authors “fall through the cracks”. ‘For many decades, prize culture gave male writers a gravitas that it wouldn’t extend to women’ “I think people who liked Apple Tree Yard will like Platform Seven because there’s a similar tone – and they’re both novels which are attempting to find the truth of women’s contemporary lives.” The huge success of her seventh novel, Apple Tree Yard, which was adapted for TV, has allowed Doughty to be “more playful” in her work. “It’s really a novel about how we tend to give disproportionate amounts of time to romantic love over other connections, such as friends or human kindness.” “It’s a ghost story but it’s also an exploration of love and loss,” she says.

From that casual joke sprang a haunting, powerful novel. I used to joke that if I’d ever been bad, I’d find myself trapped there for purgatory…”. She set it in Peterborough station because “it’s played such a major part in my life. I think that’s more discomforting.” Ben Chaplin and Emily Watson in ‘Apple Tree Yard’, a BBC drama centred on a sexual assault and court case Photograph: BBC “We’re more comfortable with the idea of abusers as evil people, but there are a lot of men who are decent in other areas but who manipulate and control their partners. “I was interested in exploring a coercive relationship with no actual violence,” Doughty says.

Louise doughty platform seven