The best way to quit smoking is never to have started in the first place. But if you are reading this, the chances are that you made the same mistake as me.

For many people there is no ‘easy way’ to quit smoking and this is the reason why I wrote the book; to help those who like myself found it was actually quite a hard addiction to break.

The UK government and the health industry have been banging the wrong drum for years. First they tried to put you off by telling you all the nasty conditions you can get by smoking. They are not wrong but it did not make me stop or even want to stop.

Then they tax the pants off you to make it unaffordable. That did not put me off either but smoking just became more expensive for me. I could no more cut back on money for cigarettes than I could cut back on my mortgage payments.

Then they ordered that cigarettes be placed in unattractive packaging and put behind closed doors, presumably in order to deter non smokers to ever start. I’m not sure that this worked, as many underage children still find ways to smoke, particularly with hand rolling tobacco.

Take it from a smoker who has already been at the sharp end, if you are going to stop smoking at all, you have to decide on a very good reason why? If it is not a good enough reason then you are already on shaky ground. My book explores this.

The quitting bit is great when you have that initial resolve. It is staying quit that is the difficult part and at that moment of extreme weakness the only person you are going to listen to is yourself. I will explain how you do this.

I spent my time quitting with an on line self help support forum. With their help I wrote this book in real time with access to a great many opinions to see what was the most common difficulties.

This is why you can read each chapter also in the real time frame of your quit, knowing that this is the same experience for those who have quit before.

‘Stop Smoking: Diary of a Quitter’ costs less than one day of your usual tobacco product, which is a small price to pay if you really want to quit smoking.