A man who struggled to get out of bed after his wife suddenly passed away says writing helped him overcome his crushing grief.

Paul and Kate Robinson had been together for 43 years when she became ill in November 2019 and died a week later.

It was the same month Paul had started a writing challenge to complete a novel in just 31 days.

Kate's death also came only months after the couple had moved to the seaside in Folkestone from London for their retirement.

Devastated, Paul says he struggled to find motivation to carry on and fell into depression.

Some days, he couldn't find a reason to get out of bed.

He said: "We were looking forward to a happy retirement by the seaside.

"After a lovely summer however, Kate suddenly took ill and died of a brain haemorrhage.

"I was devastated and left without support and companionship.

"This was followed by the national lockdown."

But Paul started to emerge from his depression as he started to write once more.

He said: "Kate had always encouraged me in my writing.

"I didn't feel like writing again for some time, but I opened my computer one day and looked at the story I had begun before she became ill.

"I began to work at it again bit by bit.

"In short, the story helped to save me from the acute lethargy and grief that I was feeling."

Paul and Kate married in 1977, having met the previous year while both working at a school in Oxford.

Paul was a teacher and Kate had started her teaching practice.

"We bonded over the Times crossword in the staff room," Paul said. "She had amazing big eyes. I asked her out for a meal, and it happened to be her birthday."

The couple lived in Oxford until 1980, and then moved to Walthamstow where Kate trained to become a nurse, and Paul taught at a school for deaf children.

Kate later became ordained as a reverend in 2003.

When Paul reduced his hours to part time, he took up writing.

In 2014, he started his first children's book, Charlie and the Dream, based on the character of Charlotte Holmes, the great-great-grand daughter of the famous detective.

Charlie, who is profoundly deaf, works with sidekick Joanne Watson, a girl on the autistic spectrum, to solve crime.

Five books were self published in the series.

Paul them turned his hand to a new book, Timesplit, which sees a teenage girl trade lives with characters from history.

In one book, she swaps places with a young Marie Curie.

It was his latest book, I Was A Teenage Spy, that he had started writing just weeks before Kate became ill.

Paul said: "It is my first work to be written in the first person, the first story with a male hero, and the first with an autobiographical element.

"It is set in the sixties, the height of the cold war. Kate was extremely excited to see how this story would develop.

"But before I had a chance to finish it, Kate died.

"The book was a painful reminder of what I had lost.

"I almost gave up writing for good.

"As I began to emerge from the deep grief, however, I picked up the story again.

"It was as if I could feel Kate urging me on."

Paul finished the book earlier this year and it has now been published.

Paul added: "This partly autobiographical work has been a cathartic experience, and it has helped me to reconcile myself to the loss of Kate.”

I Was a Teenage Spy is published by Candy Jar Books and is on sale now.

Visit paulwrobinson.co.uk.

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