Six of my Favourite Places

I have been to so many amazing places, especially in the 15 years since I took (early) retirement. Places I thought I’d never see, places which surprised me, places which seemed so familiar because I’d seen so many photos of them, and places which made a lasting impression on me.

Impossible to pick out any six ‘best’ so I’ve decided to list some of the places I’ve used in my stories, which happen to be among my favourite places.

1. The English Lake District.

This was the setting for Fragrance of Violets and, to a lesser extent for Changing the Future, and it’s also where my current ‘work in progress’ is set. I love this area which is about 70 miles from where I live. Beautiful scenery, with the lakes and mountains, and so familiar too, as I went up there a lot over a period of about 30 years when we had a caravan there. The Langdale Valley is my favourite spot, although sitting on the shore of Coniston Water with a large ice-cream comes a close second.

2. Paris

Abbey joined Jack there for a weekend in Fragrance of Violets. I first went to Paris when I was 18, and have lost count of how many times I have been there since. It really is a beautiful city, seen best (in my opinion) from a bateau mouche on the Seine. And, of course, there are all the pavement cafes where you can sit for as long as you want. Ideal for people watching!

3. New York City

Lisa and Paul have two days in NYC in Changing the Future. New York is one of those places that always seems familiar because, of course, you see it so much in movies but I’ll never forget the first time I was there (in 1980). We walked along 59th Street from our hotel and reached a road junction where the street sign said ‘Broadway’. I could hardly believe I was standing on THE Broadway! Since then I’ve been to NYC several times, but it’s always as exciting as it was that very first time.

4. Egypt

My next release (in November), Her Only Option, is set here and the story was inspired by the Nile Cruise I did in October 2010. Although I’d been to Cairo just for a day about 20 years ago, I always wanted to see Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, so my 2010 trip was the culmination of a long-held dream. I felt I had travelled back in time when I was in the Valley, seeing all the tombs of the Pharaohs, so that’s where my hero works. The other awe-inspiring place was the Abu Simbel temples on the shores of Lake Nasser. Sunrise there was an experience I shall never forget – and of course I took my hero and heroine there.

5. London

London is the setting for His Leading Lady, especially the area known as the West End, which is the theatre district (equivalent to NYC’s Broadway). I first visited London when I was seven and remember being so excited when I heard Big Ben strike the hour. At the time, in the pre-television era, I had only heard Big Ben on the radio. Since then, I’ve been to London dozens of times but, like Paris and NYC, it always seems ‘special’. I love its tourist sights, especially the 1000-year-old Tower of London and Westminster Abbey where history seems to come alive.

6. Ireland

I haven’t set any of my novels here (yet!), but I’m including it because it featured in the first story I wrote when I returned to writing fiction about 6 years ago. I was a fan of ‘The West Wing’ and discovered the world of fan-fiction. A chance comment from a friend set me off on writing a fan-fiction story about Jed and Abbey (the President and First Lady), which I set in Ireland. As a direct result, I went to the west coast of Ireland in 2007, and have been back a dozen times since then. I love Ireland’s scenery and heritage, not forgetting, of course, the REAL Irish pubs, and the friendliness of the people. One day I will set one of my contemporary romances there.

Research for Contemporary Novels

On Monday Ana told us of the research she’s done about Brittany in the 15th century. Today I’m going to tell you about some of the research I’ve done (so far) for my novel.


Okay, it’s contemporary. I don’t have to read up about food, clothes, furniture etc. from a bygone age. It’s set in the English Lake District, an area with which I’m very familiar, so you might wonder why I need to do any research, but I’ve had to look up (or at least check) quite a lot of details.

Also, I decided my hero was going to be the local vet (actually I think HE decided!). What do I know about vets? Nothing. More research needed!

When I started the novel back in January, I thought it would be interesting to make a list of all the topics I’d ‘googled’ as part of my research. Sometimes they were simply to confirm something I knew (or thought I knew), and in many cases they were only needed for one line of dialogue. Here are some of them:

Supermarkets in Ambleside

19^th century ‘crimes’ in the Lake District – sheep stealing etc
Traditional Cumbrian surnames
Lake District tourist sites, for details of cottages to rent
Photos of Lake District in winter
Sculpture trail in forest
Interior of church in the ‘real’ village I’m using (although giving it a different name)
Veterinary surgery – staff/responsibilities etc
Vet. emergencies in countryside
Farms in Hampshire
Wood burning stoves
Edinburgh vet school
Info about broken ankles, plaster casts, splints (including a request on FB for personal experiences of breaking an ankle)
Walks around Grasmere
Rydal caves.
Lake District estate agents (for hero’s house) – floor plans etc
Lambing time
Hedgehog hibernation
Foaling – time taken, possible problems
Activities for children in Lake District
Typical Geordie expressions
Dogs’ ear infections
Using brand names in novels
Tower of London – ravens
Lady Jane Grey
Child custody cases

There were many others similar to the above, and others where I didn’t actually use the information I’d looked up.

I’m about half way through the novel, so who knows what else I’ll have to look up before I get to the end? So, even for a contemporary novel set in an area I know well, there’s still a lot of checking and research involved.

With each novel, I’ve learnt a lot of new things. I now know what a Nemes headdress is, I know what correlation spectrometers measure, I know how much it costs to stage a London musical, I know how often the Eurostar runs from London to Paris and I know about dogs’ ear mites. All wonderful, although probably useless, trivia, but it’s all part of the fun of being a writer.