MANY years ago I used to work in the next office to Barry Hines when we were both writers in residence at what was then Sheffield Polytechnic and is now Sheffield Hallam University.

Every morning he’d arrive at 9.30 and take his dog for a walk in the little garden outside the building, and then he go into the office, shut the door, sit down and start to write. He would write until 12.30, when he’d eat his sandwich and take the dog for another walk, then he’d go back and write until 4.30 and then he’d go home.

As a young writer I was so amazed and humbled by this work ethic, and that’s what always impressed me about Barry: he saw writing as a job, as something you returned to day after day.

Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle