This was my first book, so I had forever to write it – and that’s how long it took. There were no deadlines and no one waiting for it – except my poor sisters who were reading it in instalments, and sometimes had agonisingly long waits between chapters. I told everyone I was writing a book so that I’d be embarrassed into finishing it, but it didn’t really help – I just had to do a lot of mumbling to my shoes when asked the inevitable ‘How’s the book going?’ question.

But finally, one day I did finish it, and I still remember that as one of the most exciting moments in my writing life.

This is the only one of my original titles that has stuck so far – though it’s come to my attention recently that a lot of people don’t get the title. ‘But there’s no ring,’ they say. Well, there is – just not of the finger jewellery variety.