Quite. Biographies are often more than useful but the editorial selection involved is rarely easy.

Judicious, though? Judging what to include and what to leave out? So the man drank a lot. Big deal, some say. However, a daughter tells you he was tremendously proud to have become a teetotaller on his 50th birthday. So is it sound judgment to touch on the matter?

Faithful? Mmmm. That’s a heavyweight discussion. Faithful to the subject’s own view of himself or herself? Faithful to

As a journalist on daily newspapers I have delved into some aspects of thousands of lives. In 1999 I had the rare honour of being invited to write a book that focused more strongly on a couple of dozen people. CENTURY, published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press in October of that year, was a collection of voices and views covering chronologically every decade of the 20th-century.

Bright Lad Wanted was a self-published memoir of my father, Frederick John Cornish; Howard’s Way was a recollection of a dear friend.

I enjoy biographical work and aim to satisfy criteria of judiciousness and faith.