Was Man and Wife the product of many nights in front of your computer? It was more a case of many nights staring at women and thinking about broken dreams... I get a new computer for every book I write and I've just got a lovely new "bendy" iMac for the next one. It's quite a nice ritual really. I don't think of myself as particularly computer-literate but I've had Macs for almost 20 years now.

Is Spellchecker the writer's best friend? I rely on Word Count more for writing my Mirror column - I file exactly 1,299 words every week. It's another superstition that if I file the same number every column then it'll somehow be all right. I don't always trust Spellchecker.

Does the computer allow you to work from home? Definitely. I also probably shop online more than most people. Not just the usual books and CDs either, as I still quite like the ritual of buying those in shops. I trust the net and use internet banking and also for buying stuff that I find it boring to shop for. I just bought a Dyson online - life's too short to go shopping for vacuum cleaners.

So no Amazon for you then? I do use it but more for harder-to-find stuff... though you do sometimes find you've overdone the old "one-click shopping"! The cliche was that writers went to Amazon to see what people were saying about their books but I don't think that's so true anymore because you get a lot of "would-be" critics there now. There were even stories a while back of people faking their own reviews but I think the novelty has worn off.

Any other favourite sites? I like to check the bestsellers lists at www.thebookseller.com and www.booktrack.co.uk. They're good because they're quick. The net can feel really slow and cumbersome sometimes - during the Iraq conflict I felt it was a lot slower for news than TV. Plus www.arsenal.com, www.interflora.co.uk, www.cclondon.com/, www.theguardian.com and www.thesun.co.uk.

Spam? I know people that get extremely unwelcome, unsolicited pornographic spam but I don't get a great deal of it myself. People can sometimes be a little too casual where they leave their email address on the net. I used to use Hotmail for when I did book tours abroad, but one time I logged in and had 800 junk emails, so I just ditched it.

Do you text? A bit but not as much as the average 14-year-old girl! It's very much a generational thing, although I do think the great thing about email or texting is that it's not as intrusive as a telephone call. I welcome the idea of giving people their space.

Are you into gadgets? There's a great gadgets site called Boys Stuff - I've always wanted one of its Lazy Boy chairs like Rabbit has in the John Updike books. On the website there's a picture of a girl in a bikini reclining on the Lazy Boy but I'd actually prefer a better view of the chair! It also does a very attractive light sabre for £125!

· Tony Parsons' new book, Man and Wife, is out now from HarperCollins