Novelist Bernard MacLaverty recalls his beginnings as a Medical Lab Technician and compares writing to ‘a science of feelings’. This interview explores topics around his early poetry, moving to Scotland after the Ulster Worker’s Strike and being inspired by Brian Moore and the short stories of Michael MacLaverty. He explores the political underpinning of his writing and the film adaptations of his novels, drawing on the ‘tragic’ perspective of his work, the Northern Ireland ceasefire and themes of grace and redemption.