He has long harboured ambitions to be a writer, and proceeds from the sale of his first novel will support the Sussex Cancer Centre where he works, but this is the only way in which the two worlds of Matthew Seal collide.

For Matthew, writing is pure escapism, and for this reason he has not taken inspiration directly from his work as an oncology nurse at Sussex County Hospital.

Matthew’s first novel, Payton Edgar’s Agony, is a crime mystery set in 1960s London.

“Every day off, every spare minute, I take myself back to the 1960s and write,” says Matthew, who lives with his partner in North Laine, Brighton.

Despite being only 39 years of age, he has not embraced technology in his home life, and does not own a mobile phone.

“I’m a little bit old fashioned, standing against the changes that are happening around us, and I like writing about a character in the 1960s.

“The book is set in the post-war, pre-sexual revolution period when restaurants were becoming the big thing. It’s about a restaurant critic in his 50s who writes for a local evening London paper, and is persuaded to become the paper’s agony aunt; then there is a murder mystery.”

However the protagonist Payton Edgar is not Matthew.

“He’s grumpier than me and a bit more outspoken at times,” says Matthew. “One reviewer said that he says the things we all think on a bad day.”

A former manager at the Sussex Cancer Centre, Matthew went part-time several years ago to give him more time for writing.

“I have always written, even as a kid,” says Matthew.

“About 15 years ago I started writing again, but never thought I would make anything of it until I was shortlisted for the New Writers Award in 2010.

“I got through to the final five, which was flattering, but made me realise at that time I wasn’t ready to be published.”

Matthew says that he takes inspiration from writers such as Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith, what he describes as “off the wall comedy crime”.

“I would love to write a gritty crime novel, but everything I write seems to have an element of humour in it, which I embrace,” he says.

Payton Edgar’s Agony is the first in a series of four crime mysteries that Matthew is working on; each stands alone, but features recurring characters.

All of the proceeds from sales of the book, which is self-published by Matthew and now available as an ebook from Amazon, will go to the Sussex Cancer Fund, the charity which supports the Sussex Cancer Centre.

“That was one of the driving forces in me publishing the book; I wanted to make it worthwhile.

“The minute you say you are a cancer nurse people say that must be depressing, but actually it’s not generally. It’s a hugely rewarding and nice job to have.

“Our departments don’t have a lot of funding. There are certainly pieces of equipment that desperately need upgrading.”

- Payton Edgar’s Agony is out now as an ebook, available from Amazon. For information on the Sussex Cancer Fund visit www.sussexcancerfund.co.uk