‘Write about what you know’ – it’s the advice author after author and book after book tells you when you’re starting out. Well, what if all you know is pretty humdrum and ordinary? I’ve never travelled much, I’ve never had a family tragedy or a relationship crisis and I work in essentially an office job. Once I did a tandem skydive, but I’d struggle to make a novel out of that experience. It involved me screaming a lot.

Then I stumbled across this quote, attributed to Toni Morrison – ‘People say to write about what you know. I’m here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don’t know anything. So write about something you don’t know. And don’t be scared, ever.’

That’s how writing opened up for me. I studied English Literature at University. I’ve always read, but through my twenties life got in the way of…