Apart from books, both writing and reading, my other love is music: I sing in a big choir, play the flute in a band (not very well) and am the organist in our small Norman village church.

I also have a handful of piano pupils, one of whom is an 85 year old beginner, who treats me like a spring chicken, even though I am myself a pension-collecting step-grandmother.

I have the blessing of a home in France with a huge labour-consuming garden, and I go there in most months of the year. I am married to a patient man and have two fine grown-up daughters and a beloved dog.