This novel is centred around Daphne, a young and confused 20-something who has just moved to Berlin, seemingly in search of herself, but we never really know if we can trust her accounts of her life or what’s happening around her. Even her thoughts are rather distorted and almost dreamlike. It felt important to focus on Daphne and not the urban city itself, as with a title such as Berlin I didn’t want it to fall into the realms of non-fiction or indeed look too literal.

This was an absolute corker of a brief to work on, a slightly fantastical and macabre story, set in the 19th century, with plenty of gothic and surreal imagery to draw from. It was one of those books that I was always itching to set aside everything else and work on. From the first time it was briefed, to the finishing the last page of the manuscript my brain was buzzing with ideas and motifs.