Over and over again fans write to me asking me about The Crighton Books and whether or not there will be any more.

An extraordinary story lies behind these books. Many years ago I visited and fell in love with the small Cheshire market town of Nantwich, and I used a fictionalised version of this town in my contemporary family books about the fictional Crighton family, naming it Haslewich.

After the death of my husband I decided to move house, and via a totally unexpected turn of events and a domestic emergency I ended up making a totally unplanned, move over thirty miles from the area I’d lived in for all of my married life to Nantwich.

They say that it isn’t always a good idea to move to somewhere you’ve idealised because the reality can be disappointing, but I can only say that I am loving living in the real Nantwich.

The surname for my Crighton family came from my late mother in law as it was her family name prior to her marriage. Her family came from Cumbria where her grandfather was a joiner and wood carver, although I think the Crighton name must originate from the Scottish Borders.

The ‘wich’ part of the Haslewich names relates to this part of Cheshire’s long association with salt mining, as in Nantwich, Middlewich, and Northwich. The now unworked salt mines are now used to store many things including documents. My late husband used to work for ICI (now Astrazeneca) and at one time they stored some of their archives there. Something to do with the salt in the preserving things – too technical for me, I’m a creative type not a scientist.

The Hasle is a play on my own married surname.

One day I would like not just to continue the story of the Crightons but also to go back to their beginning, - a writer can dream.

Here is a list of the Crighton books which are split between the larger books telling the ongoing story of the whole family and the shorter spin off HMB books which tell the story of the romance between separate pairs of Crighton characters.