For Islands of Mice, my inspiration came from a year I spent working in Norway. The farmer and his family told me so many stories of Occupation and resistance where everyone was brave and clever and never got caught. It made me think - how brave would I have been?

But besides that, I've always been a keen history nerd. But not dates and timelines - social history, about real people and their lives. How did they live, what did they think? How did they love?

Like any bookworm, this is a list as long as my arm, and always changing!

If we narrow the field down to lesbian/sapphic historical fiction my top picks would be:

• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

• Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller

• Still Life by Sarah Winman

• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

If you want more recs, check out my blog posts!

What else does anyone want to be as a kid?

I mean, I pictured more of a hybrid author/vet/Olympic tennis star type life, but you know - same same.

But seriously, I always read historical fiction and longed for it to be gay. In the end, I decided if I wanted someone to do something about the gap it might as well be me!

My poor girlfriend gets read out endless history facts during my research. So picking just one is hard!

But my favourite at the moment is the fact that - in the 1930s/1940s - dropping hints that you were gay was called "dropping hairpins".

When you were fully out, it was called "letting your hair down"! Apparently this phrase passed into mainstream language in the 70s, which I did not know!

Well, we all know the real past, unlike that in my books, isn't going to be brilliant to be a lesbian in. Plus, not a big fan of the plague and the lack of flushing toilets.

So, hopefully, no interdimensional portals open up under me just yet...

But if I do get trapped in the past, I've got a plan. Head for the nearest nunnery, take religious vows (thereby avoiding the need for a husband) and use my basic 21st century reading/writing/first aid knowledge to be the world's foremost doctor nun.