"I invented a poet for my novel, a character called Liviu Campanu, but cut him out as he slowed the pace. I gave him a few lines of poetry, which I quite liked, so I built poems around them. Soon I found I had a small collection of his work, and he became my alter ego. I now write his poems and 'translate' them too. He's become quite popular—in fact a couple poetry critics said Campanu was the best thing about my recent book of poems, Jilted City. But he's a product—a by-product—of my novel, and he'll have his own book of poems soon." Patrick McGuinness • Booker Prize

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