Hollywood actress Kathleen Turner last night regaled a Scottish audience with tales from her autobiography compiled from 35 hours of interviews.

Speaking at the Aye Write! book festival in Glasgow, she quipped: "35 hours of me - can you imagine?"

"At first I said no to a book, it just seemed so egotistical. But it was pointed out to me that I had a lot of lessons in life I might be able to pass on. It's not a book of gossip, because I don't do gossip. It's about the experiences I have learned from."

In particular, Turner, star of the The War of the Roses, Prizzi's Honor and a Broadway version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, spoke of her fascination in the relationships between women.

"I find the whole way we communicate and understand issues are absolutely fascinating, but they are not very well explored.

"Male bonding has been done. But there is so much more to explore and discover in the interactions of women."

Turner has often been outspoken about changing the current social climate in America to one that respects women's rights and choices.

"I think that women my age - I say I'm in early 50s - we are really the first generation of financially independent women. My mother certainly wasn't. And when the daily child rearing duties are over, we have tended to feel a little underused and useless, I suppose.

"But now in this generation we are seeing a wave of creativity. Women are starting businesses and going back to the dreams they had in their twenties. And I have to tell you, society is in for a hell of a shock in a few years."

Also at Aye Write, novelist Tony Parsons, author of Man and Boy, talked about the inspiration for his latest new novel set in China, My Favourite Wife.

He revealed that the book, which deals with the issue of second wives, will have to be edited before it goes on sale in China.

"The trouble is the three T's - Tibet, Tiananmen, and Taiwan - they send alarm bells ringing," said Parsons.

"I'm realistic; I realise that I don't have the same freedom of speech in China that I enjoy here. But there are so many references. The book is all about social inequality so if you took out everything offensive you wouldn't even have a book. You could get to a stage that only the cover pages are left."

"So the question is: where do I draw the line? I don't know that yet."