I’d always wanted to write a book about antiques and thought that’s what I was doing when I started out to write Flora’s Lot.  However Flora’s Lot turned out to be about auction houses - just as fascinating.  But it left my antique book still waiting.  I had met a lovely girl who told me how she and her sister inherited an antiques business from their father who had died very suddenly.  They said, "We don’t know anything about antiques so obviously we won’t carry on". But somehow they did and learnt about the business just through doing it.  "What a fabulous idea for a book", I said.  Still the moment wasn’t right.  

It wasn’t until I met someone else who mentioned their hobby was antiques that I related these sisters. "I know them", she said, and suddenly the moment was right.  Again, doing the research was brilliant fun.  I still know very little about antiques but I am still fascinated by them.