London Skies centers around a woman haunted by the memories of a lost love and her own experiences as a wartime nurse. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I first had the idea for the story of a WWII nurse in 2004, and briefly wrote something, before shelving it. It was sparked by a documentary about ‘the Guinea Pig Club’ – the group of pilots badly burned, and then experimented, on with pioneering plastic surgery and facial reconstruction at East Grinstead. Coincidentally, I then found out that my mum spent six weeks in that very hospital after a near-fatal car crash in the 1960s, where she had many broken bones, including to her face.

I had more ideas about Charlotte over time, and just thought she’d be a good person to build connected stories around.

I grew up adjacent to Heathrow Airport as my dad worked there for nearly 30 years, and I never really thought about the town where we lived until I was much older and had left.

I then had the idea that Charlotte could connect the stories initially via a scene at what was then called London Airport, in 1956, as the story moves forward but also with her looking back on the war.

Which character in the novel do you feel you relate to more and why?

I wrote it so that I can relate to all the characters in some ways, and have empathy for their plight, even if they may be the opposite of how I am, or how I think about things.

Some are closer to my actual experiences, but I don’t tend to turn my life into fiction. So, being a newly divorced dad 20 years ago who couldn’t have access to his young son was something I could relate to, despite having part-time access as a father in a more amicable way, but where it obviously left me appreciating what it must feel like to be cut off completely.

I also find it interesting how a character like Monty splits opinion based on the feedback so far, but I feel a lot of sympathy for his plight.

I try to balance as many things as possible in a novel, so there are three-dimensional, flawed characters, but also interesting descriptions, a sense of place, and sufficient plot and intrigue. It takes time to do that in a way that works.

What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

I always liked seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and experiencing things I never would in my life, through the different books I grew up reading.

We can step into someone else’s shoes, even their skin, and try to think about how we’d react if in the same situation. The act of reading puts all the imagery in their own mind, and that’s powerful.

I like flawed characters, but I don’t like the idea of character arcs, or that everyone must learn a lesson. “No hugging, no learning” was the Seinfeld mantra, and I like that. But I also like at least some hugging and some learning. Because in real life, some people learn, and some don’t.

I make zero effort to conform to what’s popular, proven, or marketable, as ultimately, I’m writing the best book I can, that only I can write. I had an agent in the past, but the shoe-horning of a story into something more commercial was too distressing. The BBC showed interest, but again, it wasn’t quite right. It’s why I went indie, as I didn’t want to compromise to the point where I lost belief in what the story was about.

I’d love to find readers, but readers who want to read the kind of books I write, as I don’t want to waste anyone’s time!

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

I have the research done for another book, including a visit to a key location and acquiring dozens of books and documentaries, but it takes me about ten years, on and off, with all the other writing I have to do for a living, as well as being only partially functional due to having suffered with M.E. since 1999, and now I’m going blind in one eye. But I still have the other eye.

I respect how Donna Tartt works, taking time to get it right, except she sells a lot more books and wins a lot more awards than I do!

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