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Okay, it's a generalisation. There are a lot of writers, even those outside the self-help and spiritual well-being shelves, who I am sure have naturally sunny dispositions. And yet I would like to put forward the argument that low-level misery is the default setting for most writers. Not the full-on, chop-off-your-ear-while-painting-crows-in-a-cornfield high-level despair that was the preserve of nineteenth century artists, but a more contemporary sense of unease at the world around us. Was it Larry David who said that the collective term for writers is a ‘gloom?' Anyway, whoever said it, they have a point.

And this is how it should be. Misery - to do a riff on Gordon Gekko--is good. Not good, in general. Not good for everyday living. It's not a character trait you want form a sales assistant or talkshow host, but I would say that if there is a place for the miserable then it has to be sitting at a laptop typing a thousand words a day.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that the job of a novelist is to make other people miserable. No. That would make me evil and I'm not evil. I'm British, and there's a subtle difference. It's subtle, but it's there.