Some of my friends have asked me if Alastair, the main protagonist in A Fitting Revenge, is based on me. One person has said she now sees me in a different light (I don’t know if that’s good or bad). Well, the short answer is NO, Alastair and I are not the same person. Yes, we share a love of climbing and the iconic Land Rover Defender and the British countryside and flying helicopters and travel, but so far I have not reached the point at which my reason has gone out of the window when I’ve been very, very angry (and I have). I’m more calculating in such circumstances. It’s true that there are some parts of the book which are based on personal experiences (and which author does not use real material to create fiction?). For example, I know a couple who are very close, yet currently live miles apart. Their situation provided me with a useful means to shift one of the characters out of the way for a while. I’m not going to say which other personal experiences make up the story as that might spoil it, although I will add that the description of trauma is accurate.