David Bazell

AFTER retiring from more than 40 years in mainly local newspaper journalism, I thought that swapping fact for fiction would be so much more relaxing. But no. A less regimented routine, perhaps, but a novelist must have a new routine and cannot abandon fact. It's everywhere in the writing.

I learnt a lot, particularly on the Western Mail in Cardiff - the national newspaper of Wales - and as editor of the Exmouth Journal in Devon for 15 years, where essential laws for journalists have always to be applied to reports. This training stays with you, even when you attempt a novel.

Writing is fun, though - especially when there is a good story to record, as I have done in Requirements of Guilt.

Born in Weymouth, Dorset, I served in the Royal Air Force, mainly in Germany, and now live in Exmouth, Devon, where I am working on a second novel.

I still play table tennis at league standard, love reading, enjoy chess, and am fascinated by the universe.

I am married to photographer Sylvia, have two sons, Paul and Steven, and four grandchildren.