Whatever my other shortcomings, unlike Eric Morecambe, I have spent most of my life coming up with words and putting them in the right order. I’ve written practically everything in my time (some of it voluntarily). After 20 years in Whitehall, producing anything from public pamphlets to troublesome Government Ministers’ speeches, I am now a self-employed writer. (The commute is better, but the boss is a right cow). The thread that runs through my writing is ‘what lies beneath’ – the things we do not say, the truths we hide. In fiction, as in real life, I am most interested in our fears and inhibitions, and our honest struggles with the (largely unseen) psychological and emotional challenges of this life. My characters are flawed and lost, but they evolve and find their way – with a little help, and a little humour…