Itch is currently being turned into an opera, commissioned by Opera Holland Park and written by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton. It will premiere this year. It's not a typical route for a children’s novel, but the drama, adventure and subject matter has a great appeal and Itch has also been made into a TV series. So does Simon picture his books for the screen, or stage, as he writes? He says: “It’s cringey of course – where did that jumper come from? Look at that suit. Eighties’ suits were so baggy and loose with big shoulder pads – clearly not a sensible option. Plotline aside, I thought the characters were great and their own storyline of loss and grief were well handled. The interplay between father and daughter was lovely and I was really invested in the major players of the book. This was my first try at a conspiracy thriller and I very much enjoyed the tension and suspense. Big organisations often get this kind of thing wrong, my guess is what happened in 2018 was handled badly and hopefully we have all moved on and worked out how to adjust, and just hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Before you know it, it spreads. Elsewhere across the globe, it emerges: small outbreaks at first, but then suddenly it's a plague - and only days later it is already killing people.

These days, his tinnitus – the inspiration for his new novel and probably caused by loud music in his early career – makes social events harder. This second, solitary career suits him very well. He liked the quiet time in the pandemic, although also loved having his three grown-up children at home with himself and his wife Hilary Bird, a former Radio 2 producer. The now 64-year-old joined Radio 1 in 1986 and became its breakfast show presenter in 1988. He stayed until 2001, when he transferred to Radio 5 Live’s afternoon show. In 2010 he took over Radio 2’s drivetime slot, but found his career there crashing to an untimely halt in 2018 after one of the Beeb’s routine shake-ups. He takes a lead from his longtime broadcasting partner. “As Mark Kermode says,” he adds, “film critics don’t make any difference to the success or otherwise of a movie, and it’s the same with books. If a book critic in one of the big papers doesn’t like my book, it doesn’t make any difference. Word-of-mouth, book festivals – those are the kinds of things that matter.”

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At least we didn't have too much of a problem with Jess, Lilly's daughter. She disappeared by moving to her dad's place early on in the novel, not returning till near the conclusion of things. Wright, 68, admitted the station wanted to “do something different in the afternoons”, adding, amiably: “Let’s give somebody else a go.” The station’s controllers decided he needed a co-host for his show, and paired him with Jo Whiley. Things did not gel, and they failed to connect with listeners. The fallout was as swift as it was brutal: after six months, Whiley stayed and Mayo walked.

A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Doubleday in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ** He might have thought that that was that but, shortly after, he was snapped up by what is now the BBC’s main competitor, Bauer, which allowed him to revive the show, this time on Greatest Hits Radio. It’s no secret that Simon Mayo is a lover of books - he even hosts a literary podcast. As an author himself he has written many books including Classic Confessions, based on the hit feature from his radio shows and the novel series Itch, which has now been made into a children’s action-adventure TV show.

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I received a gifted advance reader copy of this book to read as part of the book tour hosted by Transworld Publishing in exchange for an honest review. So Simon will keep writing, managing to find time between radio commitments and at weekends and holidays, particularly when he enjoys time in Suffolk where he finds a quiet corner. Coffee and a comfortable chair are his requirements, he says, so the radio is turned off. Kit had no idea what this was about and no understanding of the anatomy of the ear either. But he did know he didn't like any of it."

An excellent conspiracy theory thriller, it's exciting, full of danger... it's riveting and hard to put down' The son of teachers, he cut his teeth on hospital radio and BBC Radio Nottingham, his ambition always to climb to the top at Radio 1. The breakfast show, landed in 1988, was a dream.In an increasingly affected north London school, teacher Kit Chaplin is struggling to understand what he is witnessing. Even Lilly Slater, his partner and an eminent vaccinologist, can't work out what's happening. As it spreads, little by little, they are inexorably drawn into the mystery behind the illness. And what they discover will change the world as they know it... Then we rewind to four days earlier where a girl is described as an ‘irate fourteen year old girl” and two paragraphs later it’s her father who’s an ‘irate thirty nine year old man’. Give me a break! Moving onto the dialogue, which was awful and stilted, making it impossible for me to give a hoot about characters who talk nonsense.