Do you focus on any particular subjects and themes?

Yes. At present issues of identity and belonging are the key ones for me. I'm thinking about questions such as Who are we? Who counts as 'we'? How do we look out, or in, at those who are 'other'? How does that affect how we and they are?

I'm also very interested in landscape and geography. So far I have set each of my novels in East Anglia, and I want readers to be able to recognise the places I'm writing about. This means I study maps then walk and re-walk my territory until I can write about it with accuracy.

How/when/why did you start writing?

The first writing I had published was for fun - in cycle magazines and a booklet of local cycle routes. Then I began to write in professional journals about my work in prisons and education, and this expanded to include travel articles and more bike books. Although I was published in papers such as The Independent and the Times Educational Supplement, it didn't feel as if I started writing "seriously" until I was over 50. I began with poetry and was very lucky in being able to join an excellent poetry group in East Suffolk where I learned more about the craft of writing. Then the idea of The Estuary presented itself to me. It was too big for a poem, and the more I thought about it the more characters presented themselves, so it seemed natural to make it a novel.

Do you have a routine?

Yes, both in the planning and the execution. I spend a substantial amount of time with books and visits steeping myself in the place and time I want to set my novel in. I love that bit of the job because it prompts me to think about the characters and what they might do. Simultaneously the themes I've already identified as important begin to develop. Then I make a rough map of the structure of the plot and stake out the general direction I intend to take and who'll do what when. As I continue I begin to discover what the book is actually about as opposed to what I thought it was going to be about. This can surprise me.

I usually write about two or three hours a day, preferably in the morning. I may do another session later on, but I could not write solidly all day. I need time in between for the ideas to emerge. It's when waiting at the check-out or on a bike ride that I find myself thinking, "No, he wouldn't say this, he'd say that," or, "Ah, yes. It would be better if she did this before such-and-such happens."

Each time I sit down I start by making those adjustments which I've decided on when away from the computer, and then I read through the last pages I wrote before I continue from where I was up to. I always write straight onto the computer.

Is it difficult?

It's work. Or perhaps it's play. The best comparison I can make is with a child engaged in building a tower of bricks. Is he or she playing or working? The task takes imagination, planning, concentration, skill and time. Yes, it can be difficult at times, but some parts of the structure are accomplished more easily than expected, and some have to be completely re-thought.

So far, I've never been stuck. Every time I open a newspaper I see embryonic stories, so the supply of ideas far exceeds my ability to get them all down.

Best advice to writers?

After you've written a chunk, leave it alone. As I've said above, ideas come when you're away from it. You will see its weaknesses and strengths when you return to it. And when you think you've finished it, put it away again - for at least a week, perhaps months - and then go back to it. Pay attention to those small hunches such as There's too much conversation, or Is it likely that this character would suddenly behave like that? And always check on details such as What sort of leaves do peach trees have?

And keep reading plenty of novels and poems or whatever it is you want to write. If you want to be published you need to know what's currently being published.

Most of your career has been spent working in prisons, so why haven't you written about prisons and prisoners?

Well, that's what I'm doing now. My work-in-progress is The Listener (working title), a novel whose protagonist is a prisoner. I've also written a non-fiction book about prisons, Prisons of Promise - You can click on the link to Waterside Press. Some of it is out of date but I'm confident its principles still stand.

Why do you self-publish your novels?

The short answer is because getting novels published at present is extremely difficult.

In respect of The Estuary I failed to find a publisher or an agent, but I trusted the book and resolved not to consign it to a drawer. Also, it has an important section about the East Coast floods and as the 50th anniversary of this national disaster was approaching in 2003 I knew the media would raise interest about it locally. I therefore decided to capitalise on this and go ahead on my own. It was the right decision.

The Reed Flute earned warmer responses from publishers and agents, but not enough, so I self-published again.

Companion to Owls is also finding further praise and interest, and again I trust it to make its way in the world.