I’ve always loved the storytelling asymmetry of one character knowing more about their relationship with another character. I think that sets up such interesting conflicts to unravel, particularly in a romance where attraction and romantic love are a part of the picture too. There’s such great opportunity for yearning!

I cleared an old laptop and I set up an email address for Nathan, the main teenage boy character in the novel. I set up social media and gaming site profiles for him and gave him typical interests such as football, gaming and good looking actresses - typical, innocent teen boy stuff. Then I sat back and waited.

I think another good piece of advice, if you’re like me and hate the idea of a blank page, is to think of your next book idea before finishing your first. That way, you have something to dive into.

That said, a good story is always a delight. I love the storytelling of writers like Anne Patchett, Isabel Allende and Colm Toibin, in which atmosphere and plot combine for a compelling narrative.

I started to write this novel on a dare to myself - to write the thing that most scared me. As a chronically ill writer, I’d always skirted around the topic of late-stage disease with my first two (unpublished) novels. to Brideshead Revisited, they occupy such a space in literature — and then you get older and realise that, if you’re working-class, you wouldn’t be one of the main characters, you’d have been below stairs.

I grew up loving stories about these big houses, everything from The Secret Garden to Brideshead Revisited, they occupy such a space in literature — and then you get older and realise that, if you’re working-class, you wouldn’t be one of the main characters, you’d have been below stairs.

I’ve always been fascinated by moral ambiguity, by the secrets each of us hold and by the lies we are prepared to tell. For me, these are always the most intriguing stories to read and watch.

Over the next five years, they explore their sexualities, navigating through jealousy, betrayal, desire, and obsession—and the friends and lovers in their circle find themselves asking new questions about their own lives and relationships. But when each is pulled in a new and unexpected direction, Ben and Frances are forced to confront the consequences of their experiment.

I hope that they will have felt immersed in these musical worlds, whether that’s the early chapters at conservatory, or on the road in a tour bus.

If you can imagine Jane Austen’s Emma but set in a tech company in New York City, you’ve got a good idea of the vibe of the book.

It’s only after she falls apart and truly faces her own powerlessness that she finally meets herself, and finds a pack.

Malc’s Boy is an experimental novel in the vein of French autofiction with a Cumbrian setting.

It is a tale of madness, the destructiveness of grief, and the price you pay for the secrets you keep.

The story was never meant to be gentle or sentimental—I felt there was room to interrogate its moral logic rather than simply reproduce it.