At school, I'd get into trouble for "not listening," but I was actually lost in my imagination, fed by weekly trips to the library. My GCSE English coursework folder was filled to bursting with enthusiastically written essays and stories. My writing has always been inspired by my love of music. As a sixth former, I listened to 'Outside Inside' by the Levellers and Paul appeared in my head: a vegan who inherits his uncle's butcher's van. I went to university in Sheffield to study English Literature, and I concentrated on having fun for a few years. But the characters from my novel were demandin...