Roddy Doyle’s eleventh novel, Smile, is the kind of book that is difficult to talk about unless it’s with someone else who has read it; a powerful novel with an ending that forces you to look at the whole book anew. Waterstones got the chance to speak to him about the real-life event behind this book, his love of dialogue and his work to help the writers of tomorrow find their own voices. Smile is available now here.

Roddy Doyle: ‘The work I’ve done? If I wasn’t me, I’d be impressed’.

The Dubliner on the savagery of school, how being famous is easy in Ireland, and getting older.

You can read the full interview here.