The novel ‘The Wild Marauder’ begins in the village of Cookham, a delightful Berkshire village near which I lived for six years. The Parrish family live on the edge of Cookham Dean, but Fenella and her sister often walk into Cookham in order to do their shopping. Bel and the Dragon, where the family attend a ball, still functions as a hotel and restaurant.

Art lovers will associate the village with the artist Stanley Spencer, whose fine paintings often contain elements from local scenes. The novel takes place long before Spencer lived, but the graveyard, which appears in many of his pictures, is the same one which is mentioned later in the novel.