Author Tilly Bagshawe reveals how she gets away from it all

Bestselling author Tilly Bagshawe reveals her favourite holiday destinations.

“When I was a kid we always went skiing to three villages in Switzerland, Wengen, Murren and Grindewald.

They were in the Jungfrau Valley and it was such a family tradition.

My grandmother went there when she was young, then my dad and then me.

I so wanted to be a skier until I was about 13 and realised it wasn’t going to happen.

I think Murren is my all-time favourite as there’s no traffic you only get there by cable car.

As I kid I used to watch Heidi on kids’ TV and Murren really was like that fantasy a tiny village with old wooden chalets, stuck up a mountainside and cut off from civilisation.

Actually, I’ve realised that’s a theme for my travels.

Robin and I live part of the time in the States and north of where we stay in California is Big Sur, on the coast towards San Francisco.

There’s a hotel called the Post Ranch which is my favourite in the world.

Some rooms are cut into the cliffs, with grass growing on the roofs, others are treehouses. It’s so beautiful and everything smells of lavender. There’s no TV, no internet and no children.

When you walk in, the cares of the outside world just drop away. And then there’s Nantucket Island, near Martha’s Vineyard. We go every summer and have a place there now.

One of my sons was born on the island in this tiny cottage hospital.

It’s where the whaling fleet used to be centred, so it was the wealthiest place in America until electricity was discovered and whaling was no longer required then it became the poorest place in America.

The Quakers stayed and it’s basically a Quaker island, with their very distinctive architecture.

Like Big Sur, it’s incredibly peaceful and is a bit like stepping back to the 1950s.

There’s no McDonald’s, no traffic lights and you go everywhere by bike.

“You feel closer to nature and that’s what I like on a break, getting away from it all in really peaceful places.”

Tilly Bagshawe is the bestselling author of seven novels and has been compared to Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins. She is best known for taking over the mantle of writing two books Mistress Of The Game and After The Darkness under the name of the late Sidney Sheldon. Her new book is The Show (Harper) hardback and ebook £7.99.