When I was almost five years old, my whole family received a vinyl record for Christmas—except me. My parents thought I was too small to get one, and I received a colouring book and pencils instead. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my present, as they knew I would, but I felt left out, the odd one out in a family of eight. My father, however, was quite sensitive and offered to 'share' his record with me. I still remember it. A purplish-coloured cover with a man on the front. The a

Tell us about your writing career (how many books, when did you start writing, did you do any courses, won prizes? – anything interesting) I have always wanted to write, but after I left school I decided I didn’t want to end up as a starving artist. So I did something sensible and did an accounting degree. As I headed towards retirement I looked to writing as a second career. About two and a half years before I retired I started writing. I wrote a 50k word novel just to see i