Police officer draws on experiences for debut novel

Gary Wright, a former family liaison officer, is about to debut a book that has been compared to Broadchurch

A former Kent Police officer has drawn on his experiences as a family liaison officer to inspire his first novel about a tragedy in a coastal town.

The "Broadchurch-esque" After the Storm, which will be published next month, is also being developed for TV according to its author Gary Wright.

The 41-year-old, who lives in Ramsgate, medically retired from the force after suffering two cardiac arrests but had a lifelong ambition to put pen to paper.

"It's all about the fallout...with regards to the community itself, and how two sets of parents react to it," he said of the novel.

"The tagline is two children go into the sea, only one comes out alive," said Mr Wright, whose pen name is GD Wright.

He added that the plot was loosely based on a real-life event in which a family from London had taken a friend's child to the Kent coast, who had later drowned.

Mr Wright served with Kent Police for a decade before being forced to medically retire

But he said that it was his past life as a family liaison officer, acting as the "link between the family and the investigation", that had given him insight into how families cope with tragedy and grief.

The book has been described as "Broadchurch-esque" in a nod to the Bafta-winning ITV series, which Mr Wright said he thought was because the novel featured "lots of different strands of a story all coming together".

He joined Kent Police as an 18-year-old in 2003, but was forced to leave the job after suffering two cardiac arrests within 72 hours as a 29-year-old.

The father-of-two, who was diagnosed with the rare heart condition arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), now takes daily medication and has had a tiny defibrillator implanted.

Mr Wright said he had learned to "make the most of what I've got" after being diagnosed with incurable heart disease

But despite having a burgeoning career as a novelist and potential screenwriter, he said he would still be a family liaison officer if he could.

"I absolutely loved it because you join the job to help people and that is the purest way of doing it," he said.

Asked about a series of recent policing scandals, that have led forces to push for reform, Mr Wright said it was "really sad" and that "the police is a cross-section of society".

He added: "99% of everyone who joins the police does it for good reasons but there are always going to be that minority who don't."