Half sisters and fellow novelists Esther Freud and Rose Boyt talk about their new novels and about growing up in a creative family. What are the pros and cons of coming from such a well-known background and how has it affected their careers?

Freud is the daughter of artist Lucian Freud and and the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. Her latest novel is Mr Mac and Me, which is imagined from the discovery of an article about the Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh staying in the former Suffolk village inn that was Freud’s one-time home and from her sensing of the ghostly presence of a young boy of 10-12 in the house.  Freud is author of several novels including Hideous Kinky, made into a film starring Kate Winslett, The Sea House, Love Falls and Lucky Break. She also teaches creative writing at the Faber Academy.

Boyt is also the daughter of Lucian Freud. Her latest novel is How’s Your Father, the story of four generations of a Hackney family with themes of drugs, violence, sickness, infidelity and the joys of motherhood. She is also author of Sexual Intercourse and Rose.