The other day I was faced with a dilemma. It was a situation of my own making; I cannot place the blame on anyone, apart from myself.

I had made the same mistake many writers make and included some aspect, instance or event of another’s life without asking their permission. Before you all shout at once, it was silly and I know where the law stands on libel…yah de yah.

I had not even thought my material was of sufficient grounds to cause offence, but it did. For a freelance article for a certain popular magazine, I recounted the story a night on the tiles, of a landlord, and three drunken men and a girlfriend. I didn’t even think they read the infernal magazine, but word got back to them.

Sounds like a bad joke, I know. I stopped laughing when the lawyer of the landlord accused me of libel over the phone. I stopped laughing when my erstwhile friends told me in no uncertain terms it appeared as though they were portrayed in a bad light.

So my advice to those of you planning to use material close to home is use a time honoured technique and lie about the circumstances, tell them it’s a fiction; but above all, change the names.