I have been writing full time for ten years, first gaining a distinction in a creative unit as part of an English Literature degree with the Open University and then completing various writing courses, most recently How To Edit Your Novel with Jericho Writer's Debi Alper. I am a member of a virtual writing group. My novel began as a response to the Mitting Inquiry into undercover policing and was informed by my life as a young activist in London in the 1980s and 90s. Growing up in a small Ayrshire town in the 60s and 70s, writing was not seen as something to which one should aspire, but in retirement now from teaching, it is something I very much enjoy and I have several other ideas for political thrillers.