I have always wanted to be a writer. No, that isn’t strictly true. When was 11, I read James Herriot’s books and wanted to be a vet. Later, I thought that working with trees would be good, because I love trees. Then there was always farming; but I didn’t have a farm. I didn’t set out to work in publishing for 13 years – I just loved books. I didn’t plan to be a teacher for 17 years – but I turned out to be quite good at it, and it has its own momentum. No, what I really wanted to do was write...