Jay McInerney captured the spirit of late 1980s New York

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Jay McInerney is a writer who made his name from hedonism and excess in New York.

His book Bright Lights, Big City catapulted him to fame in the late 1980s with its bleak depiction of life in Reagan's America.

"No tricks" was the advice McInerney's mentor Raymond Carver gave him

He was part of a literary "brat pack" that included Bret Easton Ellis and Tama Janowitz.

By his own admission, he lived much of the excessive lifestyle that he chronicled.

This took its toll on both his personal life and (critics argued) his writing.

After eight years of writers' block, he has produced a new work, The Good Life.

He tells Patrick O'Connell why it took the September 11th attacks on New York to revitalise his faith in the novel.

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