AUTHOR and scriptwriter Stephen May calls it his lost decade, although judging by the plot and location of his latest book, I would perhaps call it research.

He laughs: "Actually yes, my time in Colchester has proved pretty fruitful in that respect but at the time I just felt I was a bit lost and miserable doing loads of aimless jobs filing and photocopying."

Born in Bedford he arrived in the town in the Eighties to study English Literature at Essex University, which he tells me 'turned out to be the worst subject to do if you really wanted to be a writer'.

After a brief dalliance with journalism, including a spot of work experience for the Gazette and Essex County Standard, he ended up working in the town, mainly for the council doing all kinds of jobs, including working at the old social history museum, which features in his acclaimed novel Life, Death, Prizes.

Colchester gets a more prominent showing in his new book, Stronger Than Skin.

It tells the story of Mark Chadwick who is cycling home from work one day, eager to get back to his pregnant wife Katy and their two children, when he sees the police calling at his house.

He knows exactly why they are there and he knows that the world he has carefully constructed over the last 20 very deliberately uneventful years is about to fall apart.

"Most people in Britain live in in medium sized towns," Stephen says, "and Colchester was a perfect setting I still know pretty well for the story I wanted to tell.

"The book has a strong theme of class running through it and so I wanted my main character to come from a pub background. My family are publicans, mainly Sudbury, but I was interested in these people who essentially have their own business but then also have to mix with a whole range of people from different classes and backgrounds.

"When I lived in Colchester I was in Recreation Road so I've based my pub in the book on the Blue Boar as it was but I think is now called the New Town Tavern."

Stronger Than Skin is Stephen's fourth book but the first with new publisher Sandstone.

After working as a scriptwriter for ITV soap Emmerdale, his first novel TAG was longlisted for Wales Book of The Year and won the Media Wales Reader’s Prize, while his second, Life! Death! Prizes! was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize.

"You could say my whole life has been one long research project for these books," he says. "Certainly my time living in Colchester as well as working on Emmerdale which was a voracious beast in terms of producing material but very useful in terms of me listening to people and how they tell their stories."

Stronger Than Skin came out this month priced £8.99.

Stephen will be appearing at Wivenhoe Bookshop on April 26. For more details call 01206 824050.