May I congratulate Neil Rose on an excellent article about combining a professional legal career with that of a novelist (see [2008] Gazette, 18 December, 8). I am not a solicitor, but have worked as administrator for LawCare for the past ten years, and also had my third novel published last November. The comments highlighted in the feature – that getting a book published is not life changing, and staying published is just as difficult as getting published – rang true.

My first novel was published in 2000, followed by the sequel in 2001, which featured a character who was a solicitor suffering from clinical depression. Each sold 5,000 copies in paperback, and yet the third in the series was rejected. It took a further seven years to get my latest work into print.

Like the authors in the article I would still not be tempted away from my ‘real’ job, however successful my books were to become. The rewards of helping support lawyers dealing with difficulties such as stress, alcoholism and bullying are far more immediate and real than those of trawling through edited manuscripts, or sitting at a table in a bookshop being carefully ignored by the buying public. I agree that having a novel published is ‘a rare and wonderful satisfaction’, but lawyers who are would-be authors should understand that the satisfaction of doing a good job for your client is far more achievable.

Anna Buttimore, Administrator, LawCare