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Madam, it is with great pleasure that I have read of the ventures and misfortunes of the Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her former maid, Alpiew. I do hope that you will not give up on them despite what has been called the Conan Doyle Problem - or what to do when you are weary of your creations and the public are not.  Yours Lord Girish Sethna

I’m afraid it wasn’t the Arthur Conan Doyle problem so much as unfortunate trends in British publishing. Put simply, my publishers didn’t like the books so discontinued me. Rumblings are afoot to get them re-issued in the USA at least, but thanks to the recession everything takes longer than time itself. I look forward to the day, your Grace, when I can bring you the Countess in further adventures.

The Countess adventures are such fun I was wondering how much of it is historically accurate?

Before I turned to writing them I used to write books about the people and theatre of the time, and my finals dissertation was also on the year 1700. My background is therefore well established. But on top of that I am almost obsessive in my desire to get things right. When the Countess visits Drury Lane in February you will find the play which she sees did actually play that night. Whenever possible I even try, by consulting diaries etcetera, to get the weather right. You can see other instances of surprising historical accuracy on my History of the Countess series page. You see historical truth is so much more interesting than the clichéd way people like to think was the past.

Which do you prefer – acting or writing?

That’s like saying which do you prefer – baked beans or chocolate? BOTH of course. Though on a first night I probably wish I was at home writing a book, and when I am wrestling with a deadline I probably yearn to be strutting my stuff on stage.