It all began on a frosty night in the deserted grounds of The Woodroffe School in Dorset. The air was crisp, the moon opaque amongst ghostly clouds, the once bustling corridors now cloaked in graveyard stillness. I shivered; my football shorts offered little protection from the cold but I was at least glad of my boots, their treads firm against the icy path. I pressed on through the gloom sports hall, the venue of my weekly friendly 5-aside match.

I became aware of a rustling noise as I reached the top of a path and there in front of me was an adult badger. We locked gaze for a moment; I was stunned to see such a creature in an urban setting and no doubt the badger was equally puzzled at my attire a replica Juventus top in their traditional black and white stripes.

He scurried away and I stood there marvelling at this privileged encounter. At that moment, I resolved to write a song about a badger. My earlier attempts at a pop song such as "Shadowlands" and "The Dandelion" were far from being chart topping material, so I thought a more narrative based song would at least be more fun and entertaining. The product of my subsequent industry was "Uncle Umberto" – a story about an avuncular badger and a few other protagonists, not least a young badger called "Woodruff" – the name I'd given the badger I saw that night.

The song seemed fairly well-received from the few people that I shared it with, so content with my accomplishment set about on a different project. My wife has suffered from Atrial Fibrillation for many years and has some anxiety when I need to stay away from home. I wanted to write her a song to show her that I did understand how she felt and that she didn't need to worry when she was on her own. The result was "Close Your Eyes"; it was intended to be a more personalised birthday present but an intriguing thought had started to stir in my mind.

It was 2013, and my wife had a major birthday milestone in 2016; so could I actually turn "Uncle Umberto" into a musical – surely a birthday gift like no other? I already had 4 songs and it struck me that these could be weaved into the narrative – surely the "Shadowlands" could be the badger's homeland as they usually emerge during the long shadows of the twilight evenings. Could "The Dandelion" be the lament of a spurned younger badger and "Close Your Eyes" an appeal to a condition from which Uncle Umberto might suffer?

Over the subsequent years I wrote the other songs and incorporated them into the main narrative of the musical while still trying to keep the whole project a surprise. With help from the online support site Fiverr and of course KDP (CreateSpace as it was then), I published the book and a CD of the performances with only a few days to spare.

She was thrilled.

I later followed the book up with arrangements of the music for piano; both available on Amazon.