Matt Haig

He was a farmer.

I don't think he was ever fully on board with the adopting.

So there was all kinds of problematic things.

And I think my mum herself, as well as having the insecurity of being adopted, she also saw a lot of domestic...

I mean, he was a farmer with a gun and I think at one point he threatened my nan with a gun and he was drank heavily and yeah, there was a lot of stuff.

Very aware of it.

My mum, I think, has had lots of insecurities about that.

And when I was born, my mum had postnatal depression for quite a while because she still had it when my sister was born three years later.

Yes, and I know all this because she gave me to read.

She had one of those five-year diaries, and you'd read sort of like the same day in 1975, 1976, 1977, and she'd be in roughly the same situation and having to call my dad from work because she couldn't look after me and things like that.

My mum's still here, and she's called Mary, and...

She ended up being a head teacher of a primary school.

Oh.

So she did a lot of good things.

And who was your father?

My dad's Richard and he was an architect.

When I was growing up, he always, he worked in London, but he commuted.

So he was always back very late.

Often, I didn't see him until about 10 p.m.

at night.