John Boyne is back with his latest novel, A Ladder To The Sky, which follows on from the hugely successful The Heart's Invisible Furies, described as the best Irish novel of recent years.
His last book brought him back to public consciousness after The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but he says he doesn't feel too much pressure when sitting down to write something new.
"I sit down and try to write the very best book I can write every time, and you never know whether it's going to really resonate with people or not."
John doesn't think he'll ever sell as many books as he did with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but feels he's doing his best work now.
"I feel like I'm experimenting more in my writing, I'm more confident in it and I'm willing to just make stuff up rather than relying on stories that I can adapt into novels."
He describes A Ladder To The Sky as "a book about ambition and the things any of us will do to get ahead."
"It's a story about somebody who feels that he will not get there on his own, that his talent isn't enough, that he's going to have to use people to climb that ladder." Although it's about a writer, he says it's not autobiographical.
John thinks that, in general, writers are helpful to each other, and that older writers are particularly willing to give advice to younger ones.
"I don't think there's a great sense of competition. I think most people feel that it is the book that's going to matter at the end of the day and you alone are responsible for that. You either write a good one or you don't."
He says there are days when writing can be a struggle, "but in general the more lost in a story you are, the better it's going to be."
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