You've just launched a website complaining about the state of public tennis facilities? Yes. There's this huge anomaly. We're the second richest nation for spending money on tennis, yet public courts are bashed up and knackered. Tennisforfree.com is designed to put pressure on councils to improve facilities. The net is a really good way of getting a campaign going for very little money. Before, I would have had to have mailed a newsletter, which would have been very expensive.
Broadband? I had it fitted about three months ago. It's amazing. No more dialling up and listening to that awful noise and being engaged the whole time. I used to forget to turn off my connection and got a big bill!
Do you have wireless, too? I've just got it - someone installed an Airport on my wall for my Apple Macs. It's great to be on the net anywhere in the house. I was having a dinner party and there was an argument about Crowded House's first hit. I got the laptop from upstairs and brought it to the dinner table. It was like having a massive encyclopaedia with me.
Downloading music from the net -right or wrong? The jury's out for me. If everyone downloads music free, there won't be any money to develop new artists, but I also think it's an excuse used by record companies. I was talking to a lawyer who workedwith Peter Gabriel's world music artists in Africa. They had no idea you could earn royalties from your tunes. Record companies have done very well to come up with a magnificent set of rules that make musicians and writers so rich.
Do you research your books on the net? I'm using the web more and more. What's great is that you don't have to plan a visit to the library. I might be writing something on an old Irish aristocrat called Buck Whaley who took on stupid bets like me. So I've been online to find out more about him. For One Hit Wonderland I did a bit of research on the Albanian pop charts, but I find that if you do too much, you can end up spoiling the raw material for the book.
Gadgets? I love my Apple PowerBook G4 and I also have a Panasonic MiniDV video camera. I used it recently to film a couple of comedy ideas which I thought were better shown than written down. I'm also planning to use it to study my tennis technique.
Favourite websites? I like to compare flight prices on sites such as www.aerlingus.com and www.ryanair.com. I'm always looking out for daft offers, but have never been able to get them. www.sing365.com is very handy for song lyrics. I'm trying to build up a repertoire of songs I can perform live with a friend in a pub. I also use www.guitaretab.com, which lists chords for thousands of songs - though they're not always right! I spend time updating my website. The section where I answer emails sent to me instead of American skateboarder Tony Hawk seems particularly popular.
