Simon Coventry

I have spent most of my life as a photographer, shooting food and still-life pics for books and magazines. Back in the Eighties, I was doing a lot of magazine features with a journalist who had just written her first book. I had always fancied writing but had no idea of the process. She told me you just have to listen to what you are writing in your head before putting it on to paper.

Great advice, and I started writing a book but got stuck after a while and put it aside. Twenty-five years on, and I saw a documentary about Kindle self-publishing. I found new inspiration, dusted off what I had written of George and the Dragon and wrote the remaining 75% in six weeks over the summer.

The breakthrough moment of being able to take up where I had left off was the realisation that you can make anything up for fiction. Sounds obvious, but since that watershed I have noticed the process in everything I read of other authors' work. It suddenly became fun and I hope I can soon embark on another. I just have to find the starting point and start making it up as I go along.