The writer's perspective by Guy de Beaujeu

I've always been fascinated by families. Especially big families - probably because I come from a very small one; just my mum and dad and me. As a kid I spent a great deal of time in other people's houses. My mum and dad lived abroad for much of my schooling so I was sent away to England. It resulted in many weekends seeing lots of different families in their own homes.

I was always intrigued by the dynamics of these families. How friends would change as we got to their house. How it's very apparent that everyone within the family has a specific role to play. A role that remains fairly constant through time. So the middle kid is always the middle kid, the youngest is always viewed as the youngest. Whether they are married with children themselves matters little. They're still the youngest.

Family is frequently all-powerful – certainly within its own confines. The pull of family can sometimes be almost unbearable. Forcing us to change from the creatures we are outside it, conforming to the expectation handed down to us over time. But the desire to be ourselves and to forge some sort of independent path away from the family is often tempered by a desire to be loved and appreciated. To do things that make us worthwhile in the eyes of the family.

Bringing a partner home for the first time is hugely important. It's probably one of the most significant things we do in a relationship. It pushes so many of our deeper fears in to the open. We want the family to like them. We want our partner to reflect well on us and we want them to like the family, because, like it or not, they're likely to see us reflected in our family.

When I started writing (Past Present Future) Imperfect I wanted to explore the relationships within an extended Catholic family. I added the layer of Catholicism to heighten the emotions that we would see displayed. With family comes guilt, adding Catholicism gives you double measure.

And as an outsider in a family situation you aren't appraised of a huge majority of what's going on – the undercurrents, the feuds, old scars, petty (and not so petty) jealousies and so on. Sometimes it's a daunting place to go.

I wanted to take the idea of just how intimidating a family can be and give it a real twist. So the family is weirder than the average, living in a huge, dark, unwelcoming house. It's a metaphor for the family – it appears together on the outside but if you look closely you can see the decay.

And I wanted to make the loved one as different and to an extent as threatening to the family as possible. Making Chrissie black enabled me to add yet another layer to the story. On first glance she appears very different to them. But in fact she is as middle class, as well educated and as British as they are.

But the family – the father especially – can't see beyond her colour. And now Nathan, our hero, is bringing her into the house. It's the bravest thing he's ever done. Now we just have to see if he's strong enough to stand up to the most pervasive thing in all our lives. Family.