Calvin Wade worked on his romantic fiction novel Forever is Over during his time at BM Solutions and released the book in paperback in the summer of 2011.
A ebook version was subsequently released and its second edition reached the top 200 of the Amazon Kindle chart earlier this month.
“I started at Alliance & Leicester before working for Yorkshire Building Society. I was with them for about 11 years, moved all over the country with them doing business development roles,” he told Mortgage Solutions.
“In 2007 I left to go and work for BM Solutions for five years and I left them to pursue writing as my book had come out in paperback by then.”
The book has achieved over 70,000 downloads and Wade said celebrities including former Family Fortunes host Les Dennis and ex-Everton manager Joe Royle are among those who have read his work.
“The first chapter begins with a goodbye party for someone who has terminal cancer,” he explained. “It then goes back to his childhood and works through his teenage years where he falls in love, but she has to go away and he then falls in love with her sister.”
Wade said his career at mortgage lenders even had an influence on the book.
“To an extent, the central character works in a fictional building society for a while so there’s a bit of bit of my experience in there,” he laughs. “But there wasn’t a great amount of the mortgage industry I could get into a romantic fiction novel!”
Wade has also released a second novel, Kiss My Name, and is now working on a book covering this season’s FA Cup from the earliest round to the final at Wembley in May.
He began that quest at West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC in the extra preliminary round and his journey has taken him all the way to Arsenal’s home tie with Everton on Saturday. He will now follow the Gunners onto the semi-finals at Wembley next month.
