I always have a central simple image at the heart of each book. Often it will be something really silly that only means something to me and I can’t explain why it links to the final result. Or it will be a memory, or a sudden realisation. With I Remember You it was that I was in Portofino, a beautiful fishing village (now very glamorous, stuffed with Louis Vuitton shops but it used to be very simple and lowkey) for dinner about two years ago and we were walking around the beautiful bay, stunning views, and it was so Italian and gorgeous and I thought: you have to write a book set in Italy. Or about people’s romantic notions of Italy.

With A Hopeless Romantic, which is about a girl on a dreadful family holiday meeting and falling in love with a Marquess who owns a huge estate, the idea came when I was on a family holiday and I did meet a Marquess when we’d gone on a day out to his stately home. Nothing happened though – he just asked me if I was lost…