I’ve always enjoyed creative writing and had published over the years many play scripts, songs, poems, even cartoons – but in 2025, I decided to embark on my first book, not just to see if I could actually write a novel, but one that readers would really enjoy. To see if I was on the right track, I only completed the first two chapters before sending it to a publisher, an approach totally at odds with what the experts say. That publisher was Spiral Books, and on April 15th this year ‘The Derbyshire Detective’ had its official launch. The photograph below from a Waterstones shop manager showing it displayed next to Richard Osman’s ‘We Solve Murders’ was the icing on the cake for me.