Jenny, Ava and Ellie make up one of the all-female family units in this novel; Paula and Daisy are the other. The clash between them gave me the framework for the story. Mark’s wives, Jenny and Paula, each have a child that the other doesn’t know about, at least for a time. Mark, who is hung up on the idea of perfection and can’t bear to face up to his own guilt and shame, tries and fails to keep the existence of both children a secret.

Ellie acts as a kind of bridge between the two parts of the story; she senses some of what has happened and what may be about to happen, but not clearly. Later on, she is so distraught about having been powerless to affect events that she rejects her powers of intuition entirely. It’s another kind of denial of something you can’t control, though what Ellie pushes away is an aspect of herself.

Paula and Mark’s experience of having a child who is different to her peers, and who is subsequently diagnosed as autistic, was inspired in part by my own family experience. My son was diagnosed at a similar age to Daisy in the novel. If you like, you can find out a bit more about that from the blog on my website, alimercerwriter.com.

The scene in the novel where Paula and Mark watch Daisy in a Christmas show was prompted by years of watching my son in school assemblies and performances. Just like Daisy, when he was very little he coped with having an audience by turning his back on it. That’s all changed now he’s in secondary school, though – he loves drama and is eager to take part. He’s been brilliantly supported all the way through that journey by staff who have been absolutely committed to finding ways to include him, and it’s been great for his confidence as well as for his understanding of how other people behave and why they do what they do. Drama is magic, and can draw people together like nothing else.

Amy, who is Daisy’s key worker at pre-school, has the key qualities of kindness and acceptance that I’ve come across again and again in people who work in education – qualities that both of Daisy’s parents, in their different ways, have to find in themselves. Children and adults who are different or who are experiencing difficulties are not always met with acceptance, however, and sometimes kindness is in short supply. The history of the treatment of people with learning disabilities or mental health problems is tainted by cruelty and prejudice, and this is all too often still the case today.

In His Secret Family, Ingrid’s prejudice and her own family history prompt her to reject Daisy as soon as she recognises that she is not like other children, and as a result Daisy becomes yet another loss in her life. Decades before, Ingrid’s sister Constance was given a lobotomy and was left incapacitated. Any potential Constance and Ingrid might have had to have a relationship as adults was destroyed, and Ingrid has been left wanting and missing something she doesn’t know how to find.