And you've also got the character of Hiro, who is, she meets at, liberties i god who doesn't love liberties as a shop anyway it's like there's a thousand stories just in that store um can you say a bit more about the japanese connection

and who he is Well, this was a complete, I mean, the research for this book was an absolute joy.

I was very lucky to spend some time in the Liberty Archives in Westminster.

And going through those, I discovered that Arthur Liberty started in one room on Regent Street, which he very grandly called East India House.

And he had three employees working for him.

He could only afford to pay two of them.

And one of them was working for free for pure love of Arthur Liberty.

Is there anything that you couldn't fit in that you really wished you could have found a place for?

You can hear all about the book and about writing out of order, how she's learnt to steer clear of blind alleys and know what the characters want, and we jump back in talking about that very first idea for The Silver Thread.

I studied art history at the Courtauld, and, um, it's got a massive collection of impressionist paintings, and I'd, I'd studied modern art.

So that was always something at the back of my head.

Um, and we traveled...

When we lived in Valencia, we were driving through France one day and stopped off at Giverny, so Monet's gardens, where he created the beautiful water lily gardens.

Um, and we were there first thing in the morning before all the crowds arrived, and it was just this...

You know, when you just get that sort of tap on the shoulder and you just think, "Wow, I'd really...

Uh, how tricky was it for you to, to, to push that aside and, and to tell th-this more unique, unknown side of Japan without playing up to maybe broad brushstrokes that we all assume?