Since his 2010 debut, novelist Ned Beauman, 29, has established a reputation for clever plots replete with memorable characters, vivid prose and some odd medical conditions.

His third novel, Glow, follows Raf, a young Londoner with a rare sleep disorder who loves raves and pirate radio. He stumbles into a bizarre global corporate conspiracy, including amateur chemistry, eerily intelligent foxes and missing Burmese immigrants, that revolves around a mysterious party drug.

How did this story come about?