'Stuck between literary and commercial'

'I was surprised at the success of Chocolat. I was told that sort of book wouldn't sell as it was too old-fashioned and stuck between literary and commercial fiction, but the public voted with their wallets. (It sold more than a million copies.) And just when I was getting used to it being a bestseller, I had to come to terms with the surreal progress of it becoming a movie - with the incongruous sight of seeing Johnny Depp on set. I liked it just fine, though if I had filmed it I might have made it slightly differently...

When I write I'm constantly putting myself in the position of someone else as I write using myriad voices; I think that it's a life skill all people should learn.'

Joanne Harris, author of Peaches for Monsieur le Cure in the Independent on Sunday