After a career spent administering the estates of dead people, managing investments for live people, writing and delivering training courses for keen people and managing projects for important people (pause for breath) Raymond Cornford retired to France and grew walnuts for several years. Now back in the UK, he spends his time writing, because it's fun! He says, 'I am fascinated by the process of writing a book. When I begin a new story, I have no idea where it will take me. I never start with a plot outline. I write a few paragraphs around an idea, a character, or a situation and then let the story evolve as it will. It's almost an organic process. In the same way, I have no idea what the end of the book will be until I am almost there. I am often surprised by the direction a story takes, which makes writing both exciting and unpredictable. If readers enjoy the finished story, that is a bonus. But I shall continue writing anyway because, quite simply, I enjoy the adventure.