1.      Over the course of my working life I have been variously paid for watching films, playing computer games, weighing fat men, coaching football, going to church, jumping around in a skip, and making up lies about the national sport of Denmark. Writing stories is probably my favourite of all of those, but the rest have been a lot of fun.

2.      Before The Book Guild offered to publish Dead Man Singing, I spent 15 years writing fiction, submitting it for publication and having it rejected. I’m certainly a much better writer now than I was then, and I’m glad that I waited for a publisher rather than self-publishing when I thought – wrongly – that my work was good enough. Sometimes the gatekeepers are doing us a favour when they say no. That 15 years was an essential part of learning my craft (although, like all writers, there's always more to learn). Getting the acceptance email from The Book Guild was one of the most satisfying moments of my life – outside of family stuff, possibly the most satisfying. I love hearing from readers who have enjoyed my work, but the sense of validation that came from someone in the industry saying ‘yes’ was quite profound.

3.      Like many people, family is important to me. My wife and two sons are also deeply and committedly unimpressed with my writing career. Neither of the boys – aged 21 and 18, respectively – have shown the slightest inclination in reading either of my books, even though Foul and Fair is dedicated to them! To say that they keep my feet on the ground and stop me from getting big-headed is an understatement.

4.      Music and football are two big passions in my life, and each provides the backdrop for one of my novels (so far). Beyond the settings of music and football, both books tell the stories of men who have lost their way and are trying to get their lives back on track. I want readers to connect with the main characters, to feel their emotions, to invest. My aim is to make the stories resonate regardless of whether readers have a particular interest in music, football or whatever other clothes the stories are dressed in.

5.      Bizarrely, several people asked me if Dead Man Singing was autobiographical – as if I had previously forged a career as a 70s rock star or faked my own death (for the record, I have done neither of those things). I’m not really a musician but when I was a student, I used to get up and play at open-mic nights with more talented friends. In my head, I play a mean blues harmonica. In everybody else’s ears, I play mediocre blues harmonica.

6.      My grandad, Lionel Couch, was an Art Director in film and television and was nominated for Oscars on two separate occasions. I once asked him if he would rather have his two nominations, or just one but to have actually won an Oscar for it. He said he’d rather have things the way they were, as two nominations speaks to a body of work rather than a one-off high-point. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that answer, although I suspect I might have been swayed by the prospect of the golden statuette.

7.      When I was a child I wanted to be a writer. Or a footballer. Or a con-man. Only one of these things has come to pass, and I think – for everybody’s sake – it was the right one. That said, if you want to invest in some time-share apartments at Buckingham Palace, we should talk.