LONG Preston author Diane Allen says her love for the Dales has inspired her to become a successful novelist; drawing upon the history and the beauty of her surroundings for her inspiration and characters.

Today, September 20, the wordsmith's latest and seventh novel, Daughter of the Dales, the third book in the Windfell Trilogy set around Settle and Austwick, is on the shelves.

She tells the Craven Herald of her life in Craven and her love of the countryside and how it finds its way to her pages.

"I was born in Leeds, only because my mother and I were both very ill upon my birth, and I would return home to Crummack Farm near Austwick a place where I lived until I was ten years old.

"It was there I found my love of the countryside; roaming the limestone fells and crags, naming flowers and playing in the streams, when warm enough and just wallowing in the glory of the wild countryside.

"Even on a wet and miserable day I still love the smell of the clear country air and think to myself that it’s true Yorkshire weather. Unlike my husband who is a fair-weather man!

"I was heartbroken when not quite 10 we had to abandon our farm out in the wilds because of my father’s deteriorating health.

"Crummack for three months of the year was usually enveloped in mist and fog as it was so high in the fells; no good to a farmer with an ailing chest, so we went to live on a small farm in Killington, in Cumbria.

"I disliked the farm, it was set down in a hollow with no stunning views and was very relieved to find out that after four years of living there we were to move to Cowgill, Dentdale, where both my parents hailed from originally.

"I relished my time living there. My mother’s maiden name was Sedgwick and anybody who knows the area will be aware that the Sedgwick’s are abundant in Dent along with my father’s side, the Winn’s, so I had plenty of people to visit and plenty of tales to listen to.

"My mother used to attend local furniture sales and any boxes of books were usually hammered down to her so I have read a mixture of all writers but I have always been in love with the Bronte’s and Daphne du Maurier. They too loved their homes and portrayed it so vividly in their writing.

"I met my husband, Ronnie, in Hawes Market Hall, at the monthly dance when we were both quite young.

"He was the singer in a local band and through the day worked at Wensleydale Creamery. We have now been married for the last forty-three years, living all the time in Long Preston after buying a cottage there and Ronnie securing a job with British Rail.

"We have raised two lovely children and are now proud grandparents to four beautiful children.

"Both of us have a great love of our native Dales and have in recent years expressed this in our different ways. Ronnie goes out most days, come rain or shine, taking photographs of the surrounding area. His days out and about work well for both of us as I am now a published author and am usually found in my little office, typing for at least six hours of the day and if not typing, plotting my next book.

"Up to three years ago I used to be the manager of Magna Large Print Books, based in Long Preston, but then I left to pursue my career as a writer.

"The author part of my life came about by accident, when one day I said jokingly to one of my work colleagues, that we should write a book and get it published. Now six years on I have written seven books with a further two to be published by Pan Macmillan.

"All my titles are based either in the Dales or are set in and around Yorkshire. They are all Victorian family sagas, depicting the hard life that it was back then, especially for the women of that period.

"I incorporate a lot of local knowledge along with researching local history and listen to people’s recollections of their earlier life in the Dales. Nothing fascinates me more than unearthing a forgotten fact about this area. There is so much history in each house and stone wall built and my imagination runs wild as I think of past lives that may have been lived in these outlying places.

We both have a passion for local dialect. Something that is beginning to get lost, in our new multi-cultured Dales. A lot of the words that our parents and forebears used were of Norse in origin, showing that our Dales were settled by Vikings all those centuries ago. I’m proud of my Yorkshire accent, I think it makes you who you are and sometimes it can say exactly the way you feel.

This month "Daughter of the Dales" is to be published. It is very close to my heart as it features a lot about Austwick within its pages and a little bit of me in the main character, Rosie.

"This spring I have been writing my next book for Pan Macmillan, "The Miner's Wife" which will be published in autumn next year.

"I feel privileged to live in such a beautiful area of Britain and although we have travelled a good part of Europe, neither of us would swap our home in the Dales. It is home, the place we love, the place I write about and the place where history has given me so much."

Diane Allen's books can be found on Amazon or any good bookshop or library.