This is your first novel.
Were there parallels with writing historical non-fiction, or did the process surprise you?
The writing process could not have been more different from the long library-bound slogs. I had recently had Covid and was commuting to Paris to teach at the Sorbonne. The novel was written in a few weeks, mostly on trains or in cheap restaurants. I was living a fevered, dissociated existence.
What inspired you to set the novel in London of 1666?