The idea for The Lost Guide to Life and Love came to me through work. I spend a lot of time in the Dales of North Yorkshire and Co. Durham – wonderful landscapes of stunning views and appalling weather, known as “England’s last wilderness” talking to the people who live and work there, many of them hill farmers, working long days, living hard, physical lives that would reduce most of us to exhaustion in days.

 

It’s a world away from those magazines obsessed with celebrities or footballers and their millions. But what if those worlds collided? After all, footballers and film stars come to the moors for the shooting… A bit of glitz and glamour among the sheep could liven things up a bit. The other theme was how much we are influenced by our families - even if we don’t realise it.

When I started researching my family tree and found out more about my grandparents and great grandparents, suddenly a lot of things made sense. I understood my parents so much better. If only I’d got to know them so well when they were still alive… So to make up for that, I put in a ghost great grandmother whose influence still drifts down the generations.

And I gave all my characters a second chance. Once bitten, twice shy is all very well. But if you’re lucky in this life, you quite often get offered a second chance and the trick is to seize it with both hands.

Finally I added food, lots of lovely food. I made my heroine a food writer so she could have a lovely time pottering round the countryside interview wonderful people who make delicious food.

That’s been one of my favourite jobs over the years. I’ve met sausage makers, chocolatiers, farmers’ wives who make and sell amazing puddings, monks who brew cider, cake bakers, cheese makers, fruit growers, wine producers, enthusiasts who make jam, chutneys, pickles, pies, pastries and the world’s best Christmas Pudding ice cream.

So I put them into the book.

I hope it inspires you to seek out your small local producers of delicious food. Best of all, of course, maybe you could read my book while eating some local chocolate, ice cream, or sipping a glass of sloe gin.

Enjoy!