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I’ve handed in final draft for Chinglish sequel – yesss! I started back in Dec 2021, so it’s taken 3 and half years to complete – about the same as Chinglish.

These books were bloody hard to write. No, I didn’t have to tell the world and their dog about my problems. I didn’t even want to write Chinglish to start with. But my agent said it might help people, and ultimately it ended up helping me, cos I saved loads of dosh on therapy.

Chinglish, a creative biography set in 1980s Coventry, covers my teens from 13 to 16. But the sequel, 16 to 18, reveals a whole new set of challenges after leaving home. Cos this period was so bleak, I thought that turning it into a graphic novel might help me swerve having to feel too much. It didn’t work.

It was only when I repeatedly sat down to face my demons that truth started to seep like a freshly picked scab. There was no other option but to use the same format as before; brutally honest raw diary entries, with signature humour to dull the pain.

There’s still a way to go before publishing – need to sell the bugger first. Then more edits and illustrating. But what I want at the end of the day is for this story to be out there, showing how life’s dead ends don’t have to be that way at all.