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'The second novel trap'

4 September 2006

'If your first novel was a dazzling success, everyone expects you too excel yourself. And, of course, you gave your first novel everything you'd got. Either way, unbearable pressure... My first book was a 500-page distillation of my life to date. After it became an international bestseller, I sat at my computer and saw nothing on the screen but the six figures of the advance for my second book fading in and out with an eerie whistle like the titles of a junk sc-fi TV series...'

Celia Brayfield on second novels in The Times