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INTERVIEW: Zoë Heller is a charming, witty, smart conversationalist who has just written a book that fits the same description - her first set in the US, her adopted home

WHAT WON'T BE apparent to those who usually only meet novelist Zoë Heller in print is the fact that she is an expert mimic. Within the space of an hour sitting in the garden of Dublin's Merrion Hotel, she has taken off a Caribbean busybody to a tee, as well as an upper-class English snob aghast at the fact that Heller's children have American accents, and even, for a moment, James Joyce. "I'm being so boring you can't imagine," she tells her publicist, who arrives to pass on a message, but nothing could be further from the truth. Heller in person, munching buttery toast, smoking several cigarettes, gesticulating wildly and flirting with hotel staff, is utterly charming, a witty, smart conversationalist who has just written a book that fits the same description.