[This article is subject to a legal complaint]

I can’t remember where I was when I heard that Moondust was being considered for Richard and Judy in 2006, but I remember my surprise right enough. Like most men who work and don’t happen to be gay, my experience of the programme was limited, but the success of the previous year’s Book Club hadn’t escaped me - and, in particular, the fact that R&J viewers had chosen David Mitchell’s brilliant but challenging Cloud Atlas as their Read of the Year. All the same, Moondust was a nonfiction book about my search for the nine survivors from a (then) largely forgotten group of 12 who walked on the moon between 1969 and the end of 1972: it was less about what happened to them in space than their bumpy return to earth, and seemed as unlikely a choice for a tabloid book club as you could find.

I do remember where I was when my editor called with news that we’d made the shortlist, and that he described the book’s inclusion as “life-changing” - an exaggeration in the contextof the publishing industry, but at least suggesting that we were going to have fun. I also remember thinking that Moondust didn’t look so out of place on what was a pretty decent list, until the story of how it got there conferred the appropriate sense of surreality and I scarcely stopped laughing for a fortnight.

In the run-up to the book’s publication, I had been alarmed by the way Bloomsbury’s marketing department, with that marketeer’s instinct for missing the point, had assumed its audience to be exclusively male. Despite my protestations that the book was far more about life on earth than it was about space or rockets, it was rockets and review quotes invoking The Right Stuff (lovely, but misleading on their own) that ended up on the cover. Which is why the copy sent to the programme was initially placed in the “don’t bother” pile. And why, when a woman executive at ITV who had fallen in love with it recommended that it be read, it was again dismissed, on the assumption that this couldn’t possibly be the book she was referring to. Only after several attempts did it wind up on the desk of Amanda Ross, who runs the show and has the final say. She later cited it as her personal favourite from that year’s list, but whenever I find myself getting cocky about my work, I think of this.

What happened next is an entertaining blur. A camera crew came to Norwich and we spent a pleasant couple of days filming in the city and on the north Norfolk coast, my favourite place on earth. Me and Richard Benson, my former colleague at The Face, (chosen for The Farm), were different from the other Brits on the list: one, at the end of filming near his home in Hampstead, had commented, “Well, there’s your pound of flesh”, whereas I just wanted to have a go on the camera.

Without question, the most nerve-wracking part of the experience is having your book reviewed by celebrities on live television. A few weeks before mine was up, Tony Robinson had torn into one - rightly, in my view, but shattering my assumption that celebs would be gentle. This was of particular concern because my nominated stars were Myleene Klass and the astronomer Colin Pillinger, who makes an appearance in chapter nine of Moondust, where he is affectionately but unceremoniously made fun of. Talk about payback time.

In the event, I couldn’t watch. As the segment aired, I was travelling to a parent’s evening at my daughter’s school, but friends called to say that Myleene had been smart and enthusiastic, while Richard, who’d enjoyed the book, handled poor Pillinger the way a crocodile-wrestler handles a croc. Most important, the readers’ group had got it. The thing was over and I’d survived.

Or not, because a side effect of anointment by R&J is nomination for the Read of the Year prize at the British Book Awards, a truly strange and, in retrospect, rather magical evening that there isn’t space enough here, or in the whole of the Culture section, to properly describe.

What kind of difference does it make to an author? The reports of millions in royalties are preposterous: one thing an author learns is that even with a successful book it can take time and a lot of sales before you see money in your pocket. You have to pay back your advance for one. In my case, Moondust was intense and expensive to make, and Richard and Judy helped to ensure, at least, that I paid back my advance and that the savings I spent and the debts I accrued in researching and writing it, and in getting back on my feet afterwards, came back to me. I’m hugely grateful for that.

More satisfying still are the letters and invitations and conversations I still have with people who might never have come across the book otherwise, and the knowledge that they’ve taken pleasure in it. For this alone, I hope the Book Club continues to thrive for many years to come.

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• Vincent van Gogh’s letters show the soul of the artist