Post & Publish, when I get back to it, is a tale of the life, friends and (mostly failed) loves of a thirtysomething blogger. As it’s so obviously biographical, I have to be very aware of the dangers of fictionalising real people.

I’m already working under an unspoken (mostly, at least one person has it in writing) promise of discretion in blogging about the affairs of friends and family. But fiction is different. I build my characters bit by bit, each new detail being like those little revelations you get in any relationship. Which should be fine and create unique individuals, except that the details are almost all based upon observations. One gay character in Another Education was, in all other respects and completely unconciously, a fair representation of a good friend.

Thankfully he didn’t seem to mind. But he did keep calling me Darling for a few months afterward.