Where were you born and raised? Please summarise your upbringing.
Hill: I was born in Hertfordshire, UK, in 1942. As war-time baby, I have clear memories of sirens and the terror they created in the home, perhaps made worse by my mother being nearly killed in the blitz. As a result of the danger, I spent most of my early years in the country with my grandparents and not in London with my parents. Other than that, I guess I had a pretty conventional upbringing, with one of my happiest memories being my uncle Harry, still in army uniform and on leave, giving me my first ‘proper’ books as a birthday present. Perhaps I was 4 or 5 at the time. Reading has been part of my life ever since.

What has influenced you as a writer?
Hill: During my career as a medical doctor and later as a psychiatrist, I developed research interests in subjects as varied as attempted suicide, epilepsy and alcoholism. As a result, I contributed to learned journals, such as the Lancet and British Medical Journal. Although delving into the opaque and mysterious areas of my chosen subjects was my primary motivation, I soon discovered the pleasure of communicating my results to my colleagues. Now though, I want to reach out further. Researching the background to The Uprights proved easy and enjoyable. After all, it was something I was used to doing. Changing my writing style to that suitable for the general public was, on the contrary, most certainly not easy and often far from being enjoyable. Insofar as I have managed to make the switch, I have to thank my creative writing tutor and his group of would-be authors and poets, all of whom were as unstinting in their support as they were ruthless in their criticism.

Is this your first book? If not, what have you written before (even if not published)?
Hill: Apart from The Uprights, I have also written The Fifty Minute Hour in which I revisit many humorous, poignant and inspiring (as well as painful) times I spent with patients (and staff). Also four short books for children (I Can Do That series).

What has given you the central idea for The Uprights?
Hill: As a psychiatrist, I was always asking myself "why?" Why do some people hear voices? Why are they so untrusting of the ones they love? Why do they become so depressed they want to kill themselves? And more widely – we are defiantly individualistic, yet that stand is readily subverted by calls for gang, tribal and ethnic loyalty. We pride ourselves on our rationality, yet many are to drawn to a life based on superstitious belief. We claim to be civilised and yet often we behave like animals. Does psychoanalytic theory provide any insights? Or should we be looking at Man’s past? His evolutionary history? Might Darwin – rather than Freud – provide the answers we are looking for? It was to explore these questions that I started writing The Uprights, but almost as soon as my fingers touched the keyboard, the characters and story line took over. What started as a measured academic exercise became a galloping yarn. In short, I too wanted to know what happened next and that became more important than testing out any of my pet theories.

While writing The Uprights, how would you describe your social and mental environment?
Hill: Shortly before I started writing, our son emigrated to NZ. Even with webcams and Skype and modern air travel, both myself and my wife were very upset. How often could we see him and his new family? What could we do if they needed help? How could he and his sister remain friends? Maybe because of this emotional turmoil, one of the themes of the book is the father-son relationship between Tahk and Dhi. And yet what is played out in The Uprights is very little (I think) to do with what was going on in my own life.

Do you remember vividly the creation of any particular scene or character in the novel?
Hill: Obviously a bit of me is invested in every character and every situation in the book, but what I identify most with is Tahk and Dhi’s efforts to make sense of what they observed. With the same intelligence (and of course brain size) as now, but with vastly less accumulated knowledge, they tried to work out patterns and meanings and from that basis, make useful predictions. In particular, having been an amateur off-shore yachtsman myself, I loved writing about Dhi’s efforts to use the sun and its shadows to help him find his way (navigate) around.