Those of you who have read Storms Gather Between Us will know that several crucial scenes are set at the beach or in and around the dunes between Seaforth Sands and Crosby, Liverpool. I wrote the scenes largely from my childhood memories of Waterloo sands, Crosby. As I was in the area recently, I decided to “go on location” and make sure that my memory had served me well. To my great relief it had and to my surprise very little had changed since then. As the photograph above shows, there is a plethora of wild flowers and – apart from the colourful giant cranes at the Seaforth container port in the distance, it is I am sure exactly as it would have been in 1938/39 when Hannah and Will walked there.

The wind pulled at the grasses on the dunes, bending them over, throwing up a fine spray of sand that forced Hannah Dawson to turn her head, cover her eyes, and face the other direction. She pulled her coat tight about her and tried to push the unexposed parts of her ears under her felt hat, wishing she’d remembered to put on her scarf.

Slithering down the slope into the valley between two dunes, she huddled out of the wind, knees bent in front of her, and taking the library book out of her handbag started to read, fumbling at the pages with gloved hands.

Now, walking along the path through the dunes to the beach, it’s hard to imagine that we are right on the edge of a major British port and what has now become a vibrant and lively city. There’s no one in sight, the flowers and grasses are everywhere and it has a wildness and a feeling of remoteness.

I saw poppies, vetches, clover, sea thistles, orchids and numerous plants I couldn’t identify.

it was late afternoon and apart from a few dog walkers there were very few people among the dunes or walking along the beach.

One thing that wasn’t there in either Hannah and Will’s day or my own, is the collection of Anthony Gormley’s sculptures, Another Place. I think Hannah would have liked these solitary figures emerging from the sand or partly submerged in the sea – although given her father’s religious zealotry she would certainly have felt obliged to avert her eyes from their anatomy! Another new addition is the offshore wind-farm. I used to hate these giant metal structures but now have grown used to them and find they have a ghostly beauty (not to mention an excellent purpose).

The old overhead railway was destroyed in 1956, two years after I was born – to the dismay of Liverpudlians. Known as “The Dockers’ Umbrella” it used to run the entire length of the Liverpool docks as far as Seaforth Sands. Its removal was necessitated by deterioration in the infrastructure – some of which took quite a hammering during the Liverpool Blitz which was punishing to the docklands. I did manage to see one of the old third class carriages