These questions were chosen by Damien Lhermitte, a Belgian student who is translating The Republic of Trees into French for his thesis. Answers by Sam Taylor.

WARNING: This interview contains plot spoilers. Please read the book before you read this...

Q: What made you become a writer? Is it something you always yearned for?
A: I've written stories and poems since the age of seven, and published them since the age of 14. Yes, I always dreamed of being a writer. I also dreamed of being a footballer, however: it's just that I was more talented at writing.

Q: What do you have to say to critics who said The Republic of Trees was an update of William Golding's Lord of the Flies?
A: I don't mind that comment in isolation; it just got repeated so often that it became boring and clichéd. In terms of subject matter, I understand the comparison. In terms of style, structure, narrative viewpoint etc, though, the two books are so far apart that the comparison is pretty meaningless. If you were going to compare Republic of Trees to a Golding novel, I'd go for Pincher Martin, which uses similar blendings of reality/fantasy. It wasn't an influence, though, as I didn't read it until after I'd finished Republic.

Q: What was on your mind when you started to write The Republic of Trees? What inspired you?
A: I was staring out of the window at the forest near our house in France and remembering how I used to yearn to escape into just such a place. I wondered how it would feel to be one of my children, and to do just that. I also happened to be reading about the history of the French Revolution at the time, and Rousseau. But the emotional core of the book is another (autobiographical) experience altogether, the details of which I'm not going to divulge - although there are clues to it in my second novel, The Amnesiac.

Q: Did you draw your inspiration from real protagonists of the French Revolution? Can we draw a parallel between them and the characters of the novel? (ie Louis = Louis XVI; Isobel = Marie Antoinette; Joy = Robespierre; Alex = a common person following a leader?)
A: Not a bad try, but Louis really isn't the King, is he, despite the name? He could be Danton, I guess, with Michael as Camille Desmoulins. There were plenty of Alexes around at the time; there always are. Read Hilary Mantel's brilliant novel, A Place of Greater Safety, for more parallels.

Q: Do you think building a new society outside civilization and starting everything over is really possible? Could it be perfect?
A: Is it possible? On another planet, maybe. It would never be 'perfect' though, as human societies never are. Why? Because they're full of humans.

Q: Can you tell me about Rousseau's influence on your writing The Republic of Trees?
A: I basically decided to use The Social Contract as a kind of handbook for the plot of the story: 'how to have a revolution and end up in a bloodbath'. This was much more explicit in the first draft of the story, which also contained quite a few quotations from Rousseau's Confessions.

Q: At the end Michael says "two down, two more to go". What does it mean? What does Michael want?
A: It means he wants to kill Alex and Joy. Perhaps what he wants is the perfect society, which would be a society of one.

Q: What do people tell you after they have read the book?
A: The most common remark is: 'I really enjoyed it, but what the fuck is the hole all about?'

Q: Do you believe in sleepselves and wakeselves? Where did you get this idea from?
A: The idea just came to me one day, though I have since come across a similar notion in another book: I can't remember which one, though. Maybe something very old? Do I believe in it? I don't know. It's at least as meaningful and plausible to me as the idea that the universe was created and is ruled by an omniscient, eternal Being.

Q: Did you mean to write a thought-provoking novel?
A: Yes. I wanted to write a book that would make people's heads spin and their hearts beat faster.

Q: What's the morality of the book, if any?
A: The original version of the novel was overtly moralistic - particularly about the idea that most murderers do what they do, neutrally, through cowardice, laziness, obedience and conformity, rather than any active desire or motivation. In the final version of the book, this 'moral' is very much latent, but it's still kind of there, for me at least.

Q: Does Joy really exist? Or does she only exist in Michael's head? She is quite manipulative, isn't she?
A: I've known a few Joys in my life. She's manipulative because she's ugly and uncharismatic, and her cunning is her only weapon in the 'will to power' (cf Nietzsche). But she's not cold-hearted: she really is in love with Michael. Does she really exist? 'It is not what exists that matters, after all. It is what you believe exists.'

Q: What are Michael's memory lapses due to and all about? Is Joy behind it all? Does he suffer from some kind of mental illness, a dual personality for instance?
A: Michael definitely drinks more than he ought to. Another reader (a Psychology PhD) suggested he was schizophrenic, and I did research various mental illnesses and pathologies while I was writing the book, but I wouldn't want to label him as anything in particular. I've had several memory lapses at one time in my life, and woken up to discover I'd done bad things; what I wanted to convey was the paranoia and powerlessness that such a state gives you. And also how it can seem to relieve you of guilt. If you have no memory of doing something, did you really do it?

Q: Alex doesn't play a big role in the plot, does he? Is he just a follower?
A: Alex is a born follower, yes, like maybe 80% of the population. If you don't believe me, read about the Holocaust. Most of the people involved in that were not evil or exceptional in any way; they were simply obedient, cowardly, conformist, lazy. As for his role in the story... well, it's pretty crucial if you think about it.

Q: What about Isobel? Was she really using Michael to get back to Louis? Is there a link with Marie Antoinette's high treason?
A: I think Marie Antoinette was more of an innocent victim than Isobel. I love Isobel, but she was definitely 'asking for it'.