How I love research – it’s a true perk of my career. I spent delightful periods of time in the North East, in the jewellery quarter of Hatton Garden – and in a cage just off Regent Street. The cage was a security area within the offices of the Tanzanite Foundation (which oversees ethical mining of the gem) and I’d sit there handling carat after carat of this magical stone. Just a tiny nugget of a story hidden in a newspaper can fire my imagination – and reading about a 15 year old girl who woke along the arm of a crane in her nightie having sleep-walked there, became the springboard for full research into this fascinating, dreadful affliction.
The scenarios when Petra was doing her pottery classes were based on fact – that really was me. And yes, there was a sixth-former who’d gently serenade me with his guitar from a chaste distance….wonder where he is now! As with Chloe, some of these characters are not based on people at all. Arlo’s naughty schoolboys are in fact horses I know – my own included.

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Tags | Chloe, Pillow Talk, research, Tanzanite, Titles