We gave you the chance to email Nick with your questions, and we were inundated with requests! Here is just a selection of your emails and Nick's replies.

Q: I expect you get asked this a lot, but how much of High Fidelity is autobiographical, and were you worried that some of the comments in the book (i.e. that quote about 'sometimes I think that my friends are not really my friends, but people who's number I haven't lost') might be interpreted wrongly by your friends?

Kind Regards,
Nigel

A: Dear Nigel,

High Fidelity was a lot less autobiographical than people seem to think! I never worked in a record shop, I never ran out of a father-in-law's funeral, etc etc etc. Every narrative incident is made up. And the observation that you quote above - it's just something that I thought Rob might feel in his miserable state.

Best,
Nick

Q: I've just finished reading 'How to be Good' and smiled to myself when I came upon the small cameo by Dick, from 'High Fidelity'. Did you simply toss him into the mix of characters for the fun of it, perhaps to make the readers of 'High Fidelity', like myself, smile to themselves as I did...or was there a more deliberate reason for his showing up in the flat where Katie stayed the night for those few weeks? Was Dick a favourite character of yours?

Thanks for your time, keep up the great writing!
Karen

A: Hi Karen,

Well, I wanted someone from High Fidelity to show up (the shop was in About A Boy), and Dick is the least trouble, because he doesn't say much. I'm writing about a very small territory, so it seemed to me that the characters would have to bump into each other once in a while!

Best,
Nick

Q: I just finished reading How to Be Good (in English), after having read High Fidelity and About a Boy (both in Italian), and now I can really say I'm one of your fans! I just wanted to thank you for your books and to ask you if you're happy about every line you wrote, or if sometimes you'd like to go back on some of them and change something.

Grazie,
Elisabetta

A: Dear Elisabetta,

Oh, I always want to rewrite …I find things all the time that I'd want to change. When a new book comes out, and I read the same passages to an audience again and again, after a little while the weaknesses become clear to me. But I don't want to be one of those authors who can only write a book every six or seven years, letting it go only when every word, every sentence, is perfect. I get too bored, and I'd rather start with something new.

Best,
Nick

Q: I am a musician, living in London and have just finished recording a CD, and because I have sooooo much fun and enjoyment reading your books I'd like to give you one of my CD's (let's say as a THANK YOU) - just don't know how to get the bloody thing to you...

Thanks, and please let me know where I can send it.
Sönke

A: Dear Sönke,

Send it to me care of Penguin Books - they will pass it on. Thanks, I'll look forward to it.

Best,
Nick