 Now for his fifth book Brand New Friend the 34-year-old writer from Birmingham has taken on the tricky topic of how to make friends when you move cities - and if a man can truly have female friends - in the case of the book's central character, self-employed graphic artist Rob, from London to Manchester to live with his girlfriend Ashley. As well as leaving all his mates behind, Rob works from home, ruling out making new friends at the office; despite help from Ashley (putting an ad in the classifieds), Rob meets no-one new until he meets Jo - and she's a girl... "I knew I wanted to do something about men and women being friends but I knew that When Harry Met Sally did it so well that it's pretty much a no-go area," says the former magazine agony uncle. "Then I thought about it and well actually it's not true - I've got female friends, when I got married my best 'man' was actually a woman, my friend Jackie from school. "Yes it is complicated but it's not quite as black and white as they make it." Mike adds: "It is quite difficult to make new friends, especially when you're in your thirties, especially if you're a bloke... your thirties is that time when actually a lot of people are cutting down the number of friends they've got - you've got so many work demands, family demands and all the rest of it: 'well I can't actually fit any more in as it is.'" While elements of previous books on the trials and tribulations of men and their relationships were taken from personal experience, Mike's now a happily married man with a wife and young daughter. "I've got very little angst in my life these days!" he laughs. "And everyone keeps asking: 'when are you gonna write a book about babies?'; it's on my list, I'll get there eventually... "I've got this group of friends that I go out with in Moseley, it's probably more their stories and angst I'm getting inspiration from these days," he admits. "Between us we've got loads of stories. "Some of them are still single and they just have these hilarious stories to tell; part of you is horrified that they're still living this kind of semi-student twentysomething life, but it makes you feel better.
 "Then every now and then they have these really wild nights and you just think 'am I missing out on something here?' then suddenly you think 'oh actually I wouldn't want to be out there'..." While Mike already has the germ of an idea for his next book, he admits life as a writer isn't always as glamorous as it may seem. "It gets worse and worse - honestly," he chuckles. "No, I really enjoyed writing this one but I went through a real difficult phase, so I just started writing in longhand and started working outside of the office at home - working in cafes, things like that - and it just brought it all back, I feel loads better now. "I think when you work on your own (like both Mike and Rob in Brand New Friend) you can get stuck into a little bit of a groove and it's good to just shake things up every now and again," says Mike. "You're cut away from your main source - you don't meet that many people - and you spend a lot of time on your own, writing is a very solitary thing, and if my wife's gone out and Olivia's gone with her I can go the entire day without speaking to another human being - but you've got these living breathing people in your head that you're trying to create and no-one quite understands how these things that don't exist can affect your moods!" | 
