I always wanted to be a writer.

It's one reason I quit being a finance director at the age of 40. I worked in public finance jobs for 19 years and writing was my favourite part of the work. In my 20s I had jobs in accounting, internal and external auditing and I wrote quite a lot of reports. As I was prompted to more senior roles I would write less and less. Management jobs are more about reviewing and approving other people's writing than writing anything yourself. I hated that. I was frustrated partly by my lack of a creative outlet and partly, if I am honest, that what my colleagues wrote was not what I would write. It is this experience that underpins my constant posting on LinkedIn about the need for accountants and auditors to improve their writingskills. I found other ways to write. I took a master's degree in 2002 to 2005 and that gave me the chance to write essays and I enjoyed doing them very much. Then, in 2005-6 I wrote a novel. A complete novel. It was set in local government and was called _Power, Corruption and Lies_. I sent it to about 25 publishers without any success. Instead, I wrote a pitch for a public financial management textbook in 2009 and that led to _[Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector](https://amzn.to/42f3H9h%20)_ being published in 2011, and its 3rd edition was published in March 2023. My career since 2005 has involved a lot more writing than if I carried on as a finance director. As well as my books, I’ve written reports, articles, contracts, training courses, and lots more. I must have written millions of words about money and, whilst I am still proud to be a CIPFA accountant, I now think of myself as a professional writer about public financial management.