Where Are You This Time? is an amazing account of your experiences traveling far and wide and the positive impact you left behind in each country. Why was this an important book for you to write?

Working in places like Kosovo and Afghanistan was a life-changing experience. It was exciting and eye-opening to find out what life was like there. I felt it was important to share the excitement and the challenges with other people so that they understand some of the complex issues other countries need to deal with.

What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?

I suppose it would be the first time I travelled to a foreign country when I was young. I landed in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and suddenly realised that absolutely everything was different from what I was used to – the weather, the smells, the trees, the food, the people. Photographs don’t really communicate the experience, only writing it down can do that, so I started keeping diaries to try to capture everything I experienced.

What was your writing process to ensure you captured the essence of the characters?

The book is based on the diaries I kept while I was travelling. I often had plenty of spare time after work to write about what had happened during the day and what I thought about it so it stayed fresh in my mind. Later, I used this material to build a story about the most important things that happened.

Can you tell us more about what’s in store for you as a writer, and can we expect more books about your experiences?

The first draft of this book was very long, so I had to leave out many stories and even whole countries to get it to a publishable length. So there is a lot more material. But I am not currently planning another book like this. The basic messages about the work of international aid projects and the problems facing people in developing countries that I wanted to communicate are already covered in the book. However, I still write blog posts about things like what has happened in Afghanistan and the problems of international aid on my Where Are You This Time? Facebook page and website.

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