Now, as then, it feels like a magical place, a stage set. I first visited Carcassonne more than 30 years ago and fell head over heels in love. The landscape of Languedoc in the south west of France – Carcassonne in particular – is the landscape of my imagination. It could be the way the shadow falls on the side of a church or a solitary tree set on its own in the middle of a field, so I’d start wondering where the rest of the wood went! Or an old stone shaped like a chair… It’s exactly like that Victor Hugo example of my being somewhere particular and seeing something startling…

Well, that’s a lovely question and it’s also a really lovely example because my son is played Marius in the UK & International tour of Les Mis! All my stories come from “place”, the landscape itself is a key character. I remember reading that the great writer Victor Hugo visited a town called Montreuil-sur-Mer in northern France, he saw a tearful woman leave a church – and she became Fantine in Les Misérables! How does your love of France and some of the experiences you have translate into your books? Many of Kate Mosse’s books feature France, so we thought we’d find out her favourite French places and ask how they’ve inspired her…

Kate divides her time between Chichester in West Sussex and Carcassonne in south-west France. She is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and a regular interviewer for theatre & fiction events. The author of eight novels and short story collections – including the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy (Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel) and Gothic fiction The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, which she is adapting for the stage – her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and published in more than forty countries. Kate Mosse is an international bestselling novelist, playwright and non-fiction writer. Bestselling author Kate Mosse chats to Janine Marsh about her favourite places in France…

Citadel kate mosse plot