East 17’s Tony Mortimer is famous for penning some of the band’s biggest hits, including Stay Another Day.

Now the 50-year-old (also known as the one who didn’t run himself over) has set himself a new project – to become a novelist.

It wouldn’t seem too much of a jump, only... he read his first-ever novel in April. This year.

He apparently skipped over the usual first books, like Fat Puss, and went straight for Eva Pohler’s Secrets of the Greek Revival. Now, thanks to daughter Ocean, 27, he’s read 67 books and plunged into the world of fiction ”like that girl that fell down the rabbit hole, Alice in Wonderland”.

I can’t quite picture Tony in Alice’s blue dress. But I’m really looking forward to his first book. Honestly, Tony, I’m telling the truth. Just like that boy with the big nose, Pinocchio.

Got to that one yet, Tony?