My favourite keepsake is my grandfather, Frank’s, leather pocket book. I keep the recipe my grandmother, Vera, left me in her will tucked inside the left hand flap.

It’s a simple recipe for gingerbread sponge. My sister, Lou, got lemon curd, which is really my favourite, but I didn’t say anything. Anyway, I kept this pocketbook with me when I moved around as a younger man, and now it lives in my special drawer in the family bureau in the hall.

I’ve been lucky to do the work I love, telling people’s stories, for nearly thirty years. It never bores me; people are fascinating and they deserve to tell their story so that others can read it and laugh, cry, gasp…

I’ve told the stories of both the wealthiest, often self-made, men and women in town and also the poorest. It’s a privilege to be allowed to draw out a life or business story and transmute it into a ripping yarn.

When I came to writing my novel, I knew I wanted to write a family saga and that those two keepsakes, the recipe and the pocketbook, would be the touchstones of the story. I was mentored by Nick Sayers, who is Stephen King’s UK publisher and has been since Misery, and who edits David Nicholls. We worked to put Frank’s leather book (or Franco, as he became known in the novel) and Vera’s recipes at the heart of the story.

We will work together to find your pocketbook and recipe, in whatever form they take, and put them at the heart of the story you want to tell.

I love hearing from readers who have connected with my book, and I know that you will love hearing from your own readers, be they family members, local people, business contacts and prospects, or millions of people. You never know how far your story will take you.

When I sold my share in the communications company I co-founded and set about writing my novel, I rented a small floating cabin in Brighton Marina. The owner of the cabin was an elderly lady who said, “Darling, I’ve written a little memoir of my time as a midwife in the 1950s East End of London. I’ve sold a few copies and given a lot away to my friends and family. It’s been the most wonderful experience.”

Her name? Jennifer Worth. The memoir? Call the Midwife.