I adore old houses especially big, old country houses and I’ve set quite a few of my books in them too.  So, this week, on a perfect summer’s day, I met up with fellow author, Melanie Rose, and visited Hatchlands Park which lies deep in the Surrey countryside – just a stone’s throw away from Emma Woodhouse’s Box Hill.

Hatchlands has the most amazing collection of keyboard instruments and we saw one that had once belonged to Marie Antoinette.  We marvelled at the collection before walking across the parkland and having tea and cake in the stable courtyard.  This part of the estate reminded me of my book, A Weekend with Mr Darcy, and my hero Dan Harcourt who lives in a room below a clock tower.

It was a lovely summer’s day and it thoroughly recharged the batteries and I now have all sorts of ideas for the latest country house in a new novel of mine …