Lucy Steeds, 29, is a British novelist who grew up in London. After moving to Amsterdam, she wrote her first novel, The Artist which has just been nominated for the Women’s prize for fiction. She especially loves the long summer evenings when everyone comes out onto the streets, and spends hours walking along the canals.

How did you end up in the Netherlands?
I came to Amsterdam after a year in Paris and Singapore. Lots of my friends lived in the city, and whenever I used to visit them I would think to myself ‘I can really imagine living here.’ So when deciding where to go after Paris, it seemed like a logical step. Amsterdam is energetic and vibrant, but it’s still a city that feels like you can leave your mark on it. You feel as if you belong to the city and the city belongs to you.

How do you describe yourself – an expat, lovepat, immigrant, international?
I’m definitely an immigrant, and I’ve found a home in a very international community. I don’t think of myself or other people in terms of labels, but if I had to identify as something, I’d say I’m European, and English, and an Amsterdammer.

How long do you plan to stay?
I’ve never been someone who makes five year plans or marks out my life in stages. One of the benefits of being a writer is my work can take me anywhere, and I could work from most places on Earth as long as I had a pencil, but Amsterdam feels like a very good home for now.

Do you speak Dutch and how did you learn?
Yes, I try to speak Dutch as much as possible because I think it’s important to speak the language when you move to a new country. I have picked it up by listening and by reading books. I read Harry Potter; characters have different names – Vernon Dursley is Herman Duffeling. Quite strange! It’s very interesting to read a story that you know, in a different language.

Being a writer, I have the rhythm of English sentences in my head. However, the thing that I find difficult about Dutch is the different sentence structure, so if I speak Dutch for a little bit too long, my English sentences are all scrambled.

Also when I speak Dutch, the word order catches me out. It’s a different way of thinking. I speak French and Spanish, but I don’t speak German, and I think German would be a helpful bridge to get me into Dutch because they have a lot more in common. There’s a podcast News in Slow Dutch which is really useful.

What’s your favourite Dutch thing?
In the summer, when you’re cycling until 11pm and it’s still light, and you have the sun on your forearms and it’s still warm, that’s one of my favourite things. When everyone drags their tables out onto the street, and people are eating dinner on the bridges, and everyone will be having their borrel on the stoep. I love it when you cycle past, and you see about ten different dinner parties happening. The city feels like it belongs to everyone, that’s what’s really nice.

Last summer, I cycled past some girls who had dragged their dining table out onto a bridge. They had candles and wine and were eating their dinner. I love those long, sunny summer days when the streets just feel alive. I also love it when the Amstel is frothy with boats, and you can cross from one side to the other, by walking across all the boats. Everyone just gets outside to enjoy the sun.

How Dutch have you become?
Aside from drinking tea without milk, I cycle everywhere, in all weathers. The other day, I even found myself saying ‘there is no bad weather, only bad clothes.’ So definitely, now I am Dutch. I cycle any time of day, in any weather, and carrying anything. I have an old-school bike and have carried ridiculous things on it like an enormous plant pot.

I even love herrings with raw onions!

Which three Dutch people (dead or alive) would you most like to meet?
For me, this is easy – all the artists really. Van Gogh, but perhaps also Johanna van Gogh, Van Gogh’s sister-in-law who saved a lot of his work after he died and brought it to the public’s attention. Rembrandt too. I’d like to see the world through their eyes because I’ve seen so much of their work and their paintings, I’d love to know more about the people.

What’s your top tourist tip?
I would say walking because there’s so much to see. Get the pavement under your feet. Walk over bridges, over the cobbles and absorb it that way. Go into shops, into museums. You really can’t go wrong.

I find it helps the creative process, so if I’m stuck, I will walk along the canals for an hour and think things through. By the time I get back, I’ll usually have solved the problem. I wrote a lot of my book walking up and down the canals.

Tell us something surprising you’ve found out about the Netherlands
There is so much history which is very visible, I am always surprised. I can walk past a building a hundred times, and then one day I’ll see an interesting feature I’ve never noticed before. I love how the buildings slope into each other. You can see the centuries, sort of pushing into each other and sliding around.

If you had just 24 hours left in the Netherlands, what would you do?
I think I would just walk. I would go to my favourite museums, point my eyes at the art and simply absorb things.

Lucy’s book The Artist is available from the American Book Centre

Lucy was talking to Clare Varney