The first part of ‘The Other Miss Frobisher’ takes place in London, but before the story can begin, the eponymous Miss Frobisher has to leave her rural retreat and make the journey south from Grantham. She travels down the Great North Road and is delighted that the journey only takes her sixteen hours. This was on the Mail coach, a very reliable and respectable method of travel, since the coaches had to be on time and in good order.

After a brief but memorable stay in London, Miss Frobisher sets off North again, this time accompanied by Prudence, her niece, Lieutenant Collett, and Mr Rufus Tyler. The Great North Road along which they travel is a very ancient highway, and although many towns through which my characters would have travelled are now bypassed the essential route remains the same. Baldock, which is discussed during the journey, is one of the most recent places to gain its bypass. I recently met someone who lived there who said what a difference it had made.

After Grantham, the Great North Road seems to have split into two, with some favouring the Newark road, whilst others travelled via Lincoln In my novel, the party splits up (and I won’t say why or how because it would spoil the plot!) with some taking one route and some taking the other. However, they all manage to meet up in the end.