The Belle and Sebastian musician on his new novel, inspired by his long struggle with chronic fatigue, choirs and his love of Victorian authors

Stuart Murdoch was born in 1968 and grew up in Ayr. In the late 80s, he fell ill with ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and was laid low for seven years. By 1995, he had regained sufficient energy to start the indie pop band Belle and Sebastian, which is still going strong today, 12 albums later. Murdoch published a memoir in 2010 and wrote and directed the 2014 film God Help the Girl. Now he’s written an autobiographical novel, Nobody’s Empire. Murdoch spoke to me from Glasgow where he lives with his wife, Marisa Privitera, and their two sons.

The story you tell in Nobody’s Empire is very similar to your own story of dealing with ME and becoming a songwriter in your early 20s. Why did you decide to write it as a novel and not a memoir?
I think it’s my natural storytelling guise – it’s become natural for me, maybe as a born liar or something [laughs]. When you’re writing songs, you’re in a certain mode and you can get away with more stuff – songs are a step away from reality – and I just found that world easier to inhabit. But there were practical reasons as well: it was a long time ago and I was making up the conversations.