This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of desert island discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Ms. Playdee, are you a Londoner? Yes.

How old were you when you developed this fascination for the past which has stood you in such good stead?

I don't know how old I was. I think it was always with me. I think I discovered it when I first went to Hampton Court when I was about 17.

And I really felt the fascination of that place and it just gripped me.

And I think perhaps then I knew subconsciously that I had to write historical novels.

You had that ambition as early as that?

I had the ambition to write but I didn't know very much about it. When I started writing I wrote nine novels none of which were published.

And now this is not quite so depressing as it sounds because at the same time I was writing short stories and I was rather successful with those.

I sold them to the Daily Mail and the evening news and papers like that so that I was selling something while I was writing those novels.

What was the turning point?

Well the turning point was when I was selling my stories to the Daily Mail and the evening news and the fiction editor there was a very kind man and he became an agent.

And he said to me now look here why don't you write something which is saleable you know you want to be a novelist that's your ultimate ambition which was so.

He said why don't you write some romantic novels, lightest romantic novels. So I took his advice and I did and I wrote some of these.

And then I wrote my first historical novel which was actually it wasn't a historical novel really it was a period novel and it was set in Australia.

I hadn't been to Australia at that time but I was writing about Australia of the late 18th and early 19th century and I thought well my view of Sydney is probably as good as anyone who who lives there and has the modern city imposed on their view of it.

And this book was a moderate success not a big success but quite a moderate success it was a promising start shall we say.

I know Jean Playde isn't your real name was this the first time you used it.

That was the first time I used it yes yes and it was given to me by this agent because at that time I was living at a place called Playdean Cornwall and he wanted a new name for me and he said well she's living at Playdean.

Jean doesn't take up much room on the back of a book so we call her Jean Playdean.

Now Jean Playdean made her first appearance with Beyond the Blue Mountains. How many books does she write here?

She publishes two she may write more depends where she is but two we have publication dates at the beginning of the year in the spring and in the autumn.

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