David Nicholls' My London

The One Day author buys his books in Exmouth Market and walks obsessively along the canals

20 December 2013

Home is…

Highbury Barn. It’s one of those areas that people claim has a village feel. ‘Village’ might be pushing it a little, but I like seeing the same faces on the street.

Last play you saw?

Lucy Prebble’s The Effect. Smart writing and a brilliant cast. An ingenious, twisted romantic comedy.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Professionally, any number of authors have pointed out the importance of avoiding the internet while writing, and I’d go along with that. Personal advice I’d best keep to myself.

Best Christmas meal you’ve had?

I cook it myself now, so it’s rarely remarkable, but the first Christmas I spent away from home was in New York in 1989. Day-old eggplant parmigiana reheated in a toaster oven in a tiny bedsit on West 73rd Street. It was bleak but memorable.

Ever had a run-in with a policeman?

I wish I could come up with some example of punky rebellion, but I’m very law-abiding. I once phoned 999 about a burglar who turned out to be a painter and decorator, but I like to think they all saw the funny side as the cuffs went on.

What would you do as Mayor?

I’d close down one-third of all the branches of Pret A Manger, Eat and Starbucks, and rent the sites at a reduced rate to independent shops. Those brands are fine, but there are too many by far.

Best place for a first date?

I haven’t been on a date for 17 years, but in the olden days, it used to be Andrew Edmunds on Lexington Street, so maybe there.

What do you collect?

More books than I can ever hope to read. They stand around in great piles, glaring at me.

Favourite pub?

I rarely go to pubs now, but I still like The Rosemary Branch in De Beauvoir Town.

Who do you call when you want to have fun?

I love Damian Barr’s Literary Salon at Shoreditch House. They’re brilliant, boozy evenings, a really good model for what book events can be.

Building you’d most like to buy?

Twenty years ago it would have been a flat overlooking the market on Berwick Street. Ten years ago, somewhere on Arnold Circus, one of the nicest squares — circles? — in London. Now I’m very happy where I am.

Best place to let your hair down?

Home. I like to cook and am happiest at home with good friends, fretting drunkenly over some over-ambitious meal that’s sticking to the pan.

Last album you downloaded?

Share More Air, a compilation of songs with lyrics by local children from the Ministry of Stories, a literacy charity in East London.

At the moment you are...

Trying to finish the first draft of a novel by New Year’s Eve. I have this sentimental vision of typing ‘The End’ at five minutes to midnight, lighting a cigar then coughing.

Building you’d like to be locked in overnight?

The National Gallery. I’d stand too close to the paintings and replace Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano with a good-quality photocopy.

Favourite London discoveries?

The canals. I’m obsessive about walking in London and canals are the secret thoroughfares.

Favourite shops?

London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell Tales in Exmouth Market. Liberty for clothes, Taj Stores on Brick Lane for Asian food and Monmouth Coffee for beans.