'My last novel was set in a hotel on an island off the coast of Tuscany, and for the year that I was working on it I lived in a kind of virtual Italy. '

My last novel was set in a hotel on an island off the coast of Tuscany, and for the year that I was working on it I lived in a kind of virtual Italy. I sought out delicatessens, amassed recipe books and drew up multi-course Italian menus.