Malta
I love writing about Malta. It's an island of such incredible contrasts. The north coast a string of bustling modern resorts, the southern half a landscape of scrub and ancient farms, and the whole surrounded by the sea. Pretty harbours filled with fishing fleets, windswept cliffs, solid stone watchtowers dotted along the coast, and everywhere the tropical flowers of oleander and prickly pear.

Several of my stories are set in this landscape, taking their inspiration from the prehistoric temples, or the local fishing boats (luzzus) painted with the evil eye. Making Waves is set in the narrow defile of Xlendi Bay (which is actually on neighbouring Gozo, but who's counting) - its dark waters filled with graceful jellyfish and lapping the harbour shores. There's even a cave cut into the base of the slabby cliffs, which I borrowed for the sex scene. For All That is Gold I chose the south coast with its high cliffs blanketed with sweet-smelling maquis. The temples are based, more or less, on those at Mnajdra and Hagar Qim, which huddle in a valley that leads down to the cliff-edge and ultimately, the sea. They're some of the most ancient buildings in Europe, silent and enigmatic, their white stone glaring in the sunlight.

Galway
Thanks to a maternal ancestor I can lay claim to a tiny drop of Irish blood - enough for the landscape to sing to me whenever we go back. Visits to the Galway coast in north west Ireland left an indelible mark, not least because of the wild, windswept, rock-strewn slopes and the distant views of the 'Twelve Pins (or Bens)' mountain range, ever present on the skyline. The area inspired my novel Gleams of a Remoter World, a dark tale of ghosts, First World War history and crumbling relationships set in a remote coastal village that was heavily based on the harbour town of Roundstone, with elements of Gorumna Island thrown in.

Lake District
The English Lake District, set in the north west county of Cumbria, is quite possibly my favourite place on earth. It's got everything - mountains, lakes, brawling rivers and becks, forests, rocky heather-clad slopes, pretty huddled stone villages, and the sort of colours that send artists running for their paints. Large areas form a National Park and the tourist traps are pounded by thousands of feet every day; yet if you know where to look there are quiet, magical corners, undiscovered by the tourist hordes. An earlier story drew on the soft, gently rolling wooded hills around Grange-over-Sands, dotted with ancient springs. My current work-in-progress, And No Birds Sing, a novel about an estate agent selling haunted properties, is based in Ambleside, a bustling grey-stone-walled market town in the centre of the Lakes. The characters hike amongst the fells, and the main action scene is set in an abandoned mine on the slopes of Helvellyn, the third highest mountain in England.