Mike Pincombe: author of Karlshafen

My idea of torture is... not something I wish to reflect upon.

A moment of great happiness... arriving for the first time in budapest, at the Keleti Station, on a summer evening in the late 1980s, and knowing that this was the world I had been dreaming of for years.

An aspect of my character i am not particularly fond of...I am not particularly fond of any aspect of my character.

A thing I most like to do... cooking a Christmas duck or a goose with red cabbage and baked apples, kitchen window open and plenty of good wine, and the family larking about in the next room.

The quality I prefer in a woman... impishness

The quality I prefer in a man... chivalry

My greatest fear...something I do not wish to reflect upon

What do you have that is most dear to you... my cat (inasmuch as one can possess another living creature)

My best success in life... the imaginary portrait I made of Helen Koszulka

The historical character I would like to have resembled... some prosperous and well connected but slightly rackety upper middle class novelist such as a more rakish but equally long-lived Anthony Powell.

The colour I like is... yellow in the range from ochre to russet

My favouruite names... Jane, Lucy, Melusine, Pella, Wanda

Heroes in life today... no heroes in life today but I admire the late Raymond Williams

My favourite composers... Britten, Schoenberg, Schubert, Stravinsky, Weill

In the shower I may be heard singing... Ich grolle nicht; The wanderer; Mackie Messe; My old man said follow the van; Chances are.

My favourite authors... Chesterton, Hamsun, Kafka, Krudy, Wyndham Lewis

The books by my bedside tonight are... Tove JanssonÕs MoominpappaÕs Island and Franco MorettiÕs Signs taken for Wonders

My favourite films are... Barbarella, Kings of the Road, La Dolce Vita, Orphee, The misfits

My Favourite Drinks are...WardÕs Best Bitter, Unikum, and a good, usually too expensive Gewurztraminer

My greatest regret... is something I cannot share with you.

If I could change something about my physical appearance... it would (and maybe will be) my little red nose

The talent I would wish to possess... is to play the zither well.

Above all I detest... meanspiritedness

A fault I can forgive... Almost any mere fault

How would you like to die... I may not really believe in ÒdeathÓ

My present state of mind... very restless.

My motto is.<