‘I’m eternally fascinated’: confessions of a ghost writer

Storyteller, nosy neighbour, bad therapist... a friendly ghost must be all these things

I promise I'm not a sociopath," I tell them. But I will be asking a lot of questions that might seem deeply strange or outrageously rude. I'll want to know what colour the walls were in the consultant's office when you got the results, I'll ask what the weather was on the day of the funeral, I'll want to know about the hotel breakfast on your honeymoon. But it's because we're not telling a quick story on a chatshow, we're writing a book."

When I meet potential subjects with a view to ghostwriting their story, I always begin with the talk", so they understand I have no malevolent intentions. I've been doing the job for more than a decade now, and it bears little resemblance to most people's assumptions.