This week’s been pretty packed so far and it’s not over yet!  Monday brought a trip delivering my husband’s paintings to the Hampshire Art Fair and, as I found myself in Jane Austen country again, I couldn’t miss visiting her resting place in Winchester Cathedral.  It’s the most amazing building and you could easily lose yourself there for hours but I had a very specific job to do – making notes for the final scene of my novel. 

It was really moving seeing Jane Austen’s grave and remembering how young she was when she died – just 42.  And we visited number 8 College Street – the house in which she spent her last days.  Here it is below – the bay window was her bedroom.

Here’s Jane’s grave in the north aisle of the cathedral.

And, in the spirit of my heroine, I lit a candle in her memory.

Wednesday morning brought a telephone interview on BBC Radio Oxford.  Click here to listen to the show – it should be up for a few days.  Once again, I was asked - as a romantic novelist - for my opinion on pre-nuptial agreements and you can hear exactly what I think at about nineteen minutes into the show!

The rest of the week has been spent on the novel and it’s going at a cracking pace at the moment which is is just as well as the next few days will be spent away from my desk but more about that later …

I was sitting at my desk on Thursday, looking up gorgeous Georgian houses for my new novel about a group of Jane Austen addicts when I received an invitation to appear on Radio Five Live!  The Richard Bacon show wanted a romantic novelist to talk about pre-nuptial agreements and how they take the romance out of marriage.  I’ve never been on live radio before and thought it would be an amazing experience.  I was cabbed in to the BBC at White City where I met the lawyer who would be arguing the case for pre-nups on the show, and we were introduced to Richard Bacon and userhered into the studio where enormous headphones were donned.

I’m pleased to say that it all seemed to go well and that I only embarrassed my husband a little by telling the nation about our old-fashioned courtship which included many a love letter!

Whilst at the BBC, I heard that Jonathan Ross was filming his show and I couldn’t resist leaving a copy of Molly’s Millions for him at reception.  He has a reading group on Twitter and I’ve heard he likes romantic comedies!

Now, it’s back to the desk.  I’ve discovered two amazing Georgian houses in nearby Oxfordshire and will be visiting them tomorrow.  Another hard day at the office …