Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men

I couldn`t fight my way out of a paper bag, but I was always very interested in boxing, so it was natural that when I came to my third novel I`d do what the guide books tell you – write about something you know.

I wanted to feature the character of Dan Starkey again, so I came up with the idea of having him write a book about an attempt by a fairly useless Belfast fighter, Fat Boy McMaster, to become world heavy weight champion, a fight which is really a cynical ploy by his manager to make loads of money by staging it in New York on St Patrick`s Day.

I think this is probably the funniest book, but what do I know? It was great fun to write, particularly the `poof is in the pudding` joke, which I managed to stretch out over about sixteen chapters. Curiously, in what would become a bit of a pattern, as soon as I finished writing it, I lost all interest in boxing.

See, I just exploit things really, then drop them. Like women.