Formula 1 presenter Steve Jones has shared how he drew on painful memories of "the worst thing that's ever happened to me" for his new book. The Welsh star penned his debut novel, Call Time after years of "wasting" his time away from the circuit.
Described as "Sliding Doors meets High Fidelity", the book tells the story of Bob Bloomfield, who calls the telephone number of his childhood home - only for his 12-year-old self to pick up. His best friend's wife calls him a a 'selfish, arrogant a*sehole' - but Bob turns out to be hiding a tragic past.
Appearing on the BBC's The One Show on Tuesday (July 4), Steve told hosts Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas: "There's a grim connection between myself and my protagonist. When he was a kid he went on a bike ride with his younger brother and his brother came off the bike and died. The same thing happened to me when I was a kid.
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"Myself and my brother Jonathan and friend Chris went on a bike ride and Chris came off his bike and died. I was 19 at the time.
"I decided to draw on that event. It was tough, it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I went there, I'm still trying to come to terms with it, whether it was the right thing to do. I've spoken to Chris's family and they're ok with it, so I used that thing that happened to me."
Steve thanked his work on Formula 1 for giving him the "gift" of time to work on the book. He said it was "one lonely hotel room after the next, one long haul flight after the next".
He added: "The idea for the book came along and it's been fantastic ever since but I wasted those first few years."
Away from his real-life inspiration, Steve joked all his best ideas "come from the pub". He told of a conversation with a friend who revealed that his wife could remember all the numbers in her mobile phone.
He said: "I just quipped, 'how weird would it be if I rang my childhood home now and a 10-year-old Steve answered the phone'. I couldn't jettison the idea, it kept coming back time and time again and I thought I've got to write this."
