There's nothing like the peace of the countryside, the quiet and the lack of distraction. It helps you to focus your mind.

Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content, The quiet mind is richer than a crown...

But I do like to have peace and quiet for a good hour.

I work in a room overlooking the river. I try to get to my desk as soon as I've fed my cats and chickens. I use a blue 3B pencil and scribble away for about 20 pages before transferring it to the computer.

I had written two or three books before my husband noticed that in every one of them a family member was missing. He suggested that it was because my father's death, when I was five, utterly changed my world. I can only suppose he is right and that this is the reason I am drawn to a narrative where someone's life is changed by loss.

Inspiration comes from the world around me. I'm an inveterate eavesdropper.