Ten-fifteen years ago, if you’d asked about my favourite book series I probably would have said it was those by Martha Grimes and featuring Scotland Yard detective Richard Jury alongside the aristocratic but diffident Melrose Plant.

All named after a pub featured the in book (kicking off with The Man With A Load of Mischief in 1981), they were my comfort reads. I LOVED our main players – Jury himself and Melrose Plant of course. I’d even worked out who should play each in a TV series at one point. (And was later disappointed to see those cast in a German series based on the books – a bit like my response to the UK TV version of the Elizabeth George’s Inspector Thomas Lynley series.)