Why the setting for 'Messy, Wonderful Us' just had to be Italy

I’ve been waiting for years to set a book in Italy. I’m not the first person to say that it’s my favourite place and I won’t be the last. But I wrote no less than ten novels, before I finally got there with MESSY, WONDERFUL US and I hope when you read it that you’ll agree it was worth the wait.

The book – which is out in less than THREE WEEKS - opens with the discovery of a letter, dated 1983 and containing secrets so unthinkable that it has been hidden away, apparently forever. More than...