I wanted to be a writer in my late teens but wanting to be a writer was the easy bit. Life became busy and a lot of things delayed me doing anything about it for another twenty years! Studying, playing sport, teaching, travelling – there was never any time for writing. And that was before my wife and I started a family, after which there was hardly time to breathe! I eventually found some time when the children were teenagers and didn’t need (or want) me around all the time. I remember thinking I was at a stage in life when I needed to have a real go at writing or forget about it altogether. Time for writing was still intermittent, between family life, teaching and playing some sport, so I gave myself about five years to get a manuscript accepted, after which I thought I’d give it away and focus on other things.