‘It’s exciting for me too. We often see some surprisingly good work on these courses, but it’s unusual to find something that you immediately know could find a market. Your novel has got a few things wrong with it, of course, but nothing a good editor couldn’t point out to you. Nothing you couldn’t easily improve. It’s a thrilling – not to say alarming – read. You had me jumping at every little creak on the stairs or bang of a door. I was glad I wasn’t alone in this rather spooky old house when I read it! You have a good sense of pace and dramatic tension and the characterisation is excellent. I particularly liked the character of Ted. Also . . .’ Catherine paused as if searching for the right words, ‘the setting seems entirely convincing and Inside Knowledge is a good title for a thriller set in a prison.’

Christopher shot her an amused look. ‘How satisfying to have chilled your spine,’ he said, ‘but the setting should be convincing. You probably guessed. I do have inside knowledge. I wrote it in prison.’

‘I did wonder,’ said Catherine, smiling at him. ‘The small details are so credible and it’s written with such authority that you know the writer must either be familiar with the ambience or have done very thorough research. How satisfactory to have made such splendid use of what must have been a very traumatic time.’

‘I’ve just been telling Marnie how much I regret that I wasn’t open about it on the first night when it would have been so easy, but now that I’m out, I’ve discovered that it’s quite difficult to know how to play it. Some people find it acutely embarrassing and don’t know how to react to one at all.’ He grinned. ‘Marnie was brilliant. She just looked interested and asked me what I’d done.’

‘And what had you done – if that’s a permissible question to ask?’

‘I drove my Aston Martin at an unforgivable speed, in a foul temper, misjudged a bend and the bloke in the car coming the other way hadn’t a hope. I don’t remember much about the actual accident – but the horror of the fraction of a second before the impact, when I knew the car was out of control, will always be with me.’

‘What do you do for a living?’ asked Catherine. ‘Is that going to change now? Did you lose your job through all this drama?’