Every author remembers the moment their first book began to take shape. For me, that moment arrived in a quiet antique shop in Alston , tucked away in the hills of Cumbria , where I discovered an old military coat that seemed to carry a history of its own. That discovery became the inspiration for my debut novel, The Vintage Coat , first published in 2015 and reissued in an extended edition in 2020. This novel marked the beginning of my journey as a published author—and it re