BARNSLEY author Jonathan Lee’s new book is all about whether the grass is greener on the other side.

Drift Stumble Fall tells the story of an elderly couple living a quiet life, who live opposite a family man with young children - each wishing they had the other’s lives but not quite knowing what dark secrets lay beneath the surface.

But there is a personal inspiration behind the book.

Jonathan’s brother Simon suffered from depression and took his own life in 2004. Jonathan has also suffered from anxiety and depression, and started writing seriously after Simon’s death.

Jonathan, 44, of Wilthorpe, said: “It’s a bit of a ‘be careful what you wish for’ which just came from overhearing conversations, and people saying ‘I wish I had that’ or ‘look at the house they live in’.

“No one really knows what goes on in other people’s lives.

“People have said to me, it’s all right for you, you do the job you love, you’ve got a nice house and a family’ and really they’ve no idea what goes on underneath the surface.

“Through my own personal experiences I have started doing some talks and made a documentary film about mental health generally to raise awareness of this, coming from these types of comments, such as ‘I wish I had your life’. If they did, they’d see it’s actually a bit like this.

“People present on social media that life is fantastic and no-one ever really sees the truth.

“It was hearing that from so many different places which got me thinking - what if there are two people wishing for each other’s lives not knowing about a dark secret, which if they had known about then wouldn’t swap their lives for anything.”

Jonathan’s experiences have led him to highlight mental health, and the services available to people. He wants to ensure that mental health issues are understood and the stigma is removed.

Jonathan is working with the NHS and Barnsley Council to create a website about mental health which lists available services. He has funded it with royalties from one of his books.

He said: “Having done some talks, it was clear Barnsley needed some sort of service where people could access everything in the area for mental health.

“There was no where to sign post people to. People were saying they didn’t know about various groups and the idea is to put all that together.

“It’s still a work in progress at the moment.”

Jonathan’s book will be released on Thursday.