Who out there has a firm place in mind as a romantic destination? The place where you sigh and say ‘one day?’ A couple can save up for months – years – with an ideal in mind… only to find the reality a slight (sometimes major) disappointment after all that expectation.

Of all the places I have travelled to over the years there is only one that has exceeded my dreams. The Seychelles, a beautiful archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean.

We travelled there a few years ago for a friend’s wedding and it was one of those holidays where the magic starts the moment you land and step out of the plane into glorious sunshine and smiling faces.

The tiny resort we stayed at on the main island of Mahe, Anse Soleil, was dream-like. Set in a bay, we opened our cabin door every morning to be greeted by the ocean. In less than a minute we would be on the beach and treading our toes through fine golden sand. The water was so clear that you didn’t need a snorkel to see the fish beneath the surface but for those who did, it became a memory that will last with them forever. I must have read a whole book while my husband was snorkelling one afternoon – he spent so long out there that his eyes were bulging from the suction of the mask when he finally came back to join me!

What I remember most vividly about our time there are the colours. Greens of all shades (including the shell of the resort’s resident giant tortoise), cobalt sky, turquoise water and an abundance of flowers everywhere… the scent of frangipani trees is a scent I will remember forever. And I will always remember the feeling of tranquillity that stayed with me the entire holiday, a feeling I’m hoping to recapture when the kids have flown the nest because my husband and I have promised ourselves another, much longer holiday there. Who knows, maybe next time we won’t come back…

I hope some of the wonderful memories I made on this trip are filtered successfully in my latest release, A Bride at His Bidding, which is partly set in the Seychelles. Any failure to inspire the reader to yearn for a holiday there lays entirely at my fingers.