HE HAS achieved massive success with his bestselling novels including One Day and Us and is also in huge demand for his screenwriting skills – yet David Nicholls admits he is constantly anxious.

1. When did you think about a career in writing and what were your first steps into it? I wanted to write from the moment I first read a book by myself.

SHE has treated all kinds of dangerous criminals, from drug dealers to psychopaths, and witnessed more horrific injuries than you'd see in an average slasher movie.

BOOK OF THE WEEK Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine is published in hardback by Picador, priced £12.

"IT WAS the only time I've ever said to a driver 'we need to get out of here'," recalls Graeme Purdy of one particularly hairy moment on safari during the shoot for his new close-up based wildlife photography book Eight Feet.

BOOK OF THE WEEK Still Worlds Turning is published by No Alibis Press, priced £14.

WE ALL love to laugh, but for me humour is woven deep into my soul – in both my family life and my writing.

THE IRA abduction and murder of Thomas Niedermayer, the German manager of the Grundig electronics plant on the outskirts of Belfast in 1973, set off a tragic chain of events that would see his entire family wiped out.