CLARE Francis speaks with the sort of received pronunciation you might expect from a former yachtswoman brought up in the Home Counties. Her words are delivered with care and royal precision; so it comes as a surprise to learn how her writing was inspired by a region which brought the world the phrase "as drunk as a fuzzock".

As a little girl, Clare would spend some of her school holidays in Yorkshire. And they were clearly among the most enchanting moments of her life.

"My father was born and brought up in Yorkshire, near Austwick in the Dales. Settle is the nearest town," she explained.

"I used to go there every Christmas, to my grandparents', and sometimes in the summer to do the harvest."

From when she was very young to her teens, she spent weeks every year in their small 16th century cottage complete "with flagstone floors and big fireplaces".

Her grandfather was a welfare worker. "He used to drive around and decide who needed help, and allocate however much it was they needed a week.

"He worked for a local government agency. He had one of the few cars in the district for his work."

So she was often left to wander the Dales alone, wallowing in the "incredibly stunning" landscape.

"I loved it. So much so, that I had to be torn away.

"I thought I was the only person to realise how beautiful it was. No one else talked about that."

It is the stuff of children's storybooks. "My grandparents kept a few animals when I was young. I learnt how to milk a goat.

"I cannot tell you how useful that is."

But it was also a tough environment.

"Sometimes we'd be completely snowed in.

"One winter I got double pneumonia. The doctor had to dig his way in from one end and my grandfather had to dig from the house end. I didn't know about that at the time."

She has been back as an adult, but admits "there's a magic that can never be recaptured".

But the magic is there in her books. "I have a profound love of places of beauty, and that certainly comes from my time in my grandparents' house.

"The critics have said - when they're being kind - that I write about place as if it were a character, and for me it is a living thing.

"That comes from my time in Yorkshire."

As she strolled around the Dales, she was also taking her first steps towards a writing career.

"I lived in my head totally. I made up stories. When I was on my long walks at my grandparents I was always making up stories.

"I started writing in my teens, but I had no confidence."

Later in life, Clare was commissioned to write some articles. It prompted her to try her hand at fiction. The result: a series of best selling thrillers.

Her latest, A Death Divided, chronicles the hunt by lawyer Joe McGrath for two missing persons - childhood friends Jenna and her violent husband James. As he gets closer to them and to the truth, a disturbing picture emerges.

It is a typically well-plotted and suspenseful novel with an absorbing twist at the end.

As with her previous work, much of the tension is created through the relationships between the characters, rather than by any crime that may have been committed.

"I don't write detective fiction," she admits. "I write about ordinary people who become involved in crime or misdemeanours, what they go through and how they react.

"That's what interests me - these people and their motivation.

"I call it a sub-genre. There's not a lot of psychological crime fiction. There aren't many people writing the sort of thing I am writing."

Of those who are, several are women. "I know we shouldn't say that one form of fiction is more a woman's domain, but psychological crime is something that women writers are prone to do particularly well.

"You only have to look at Ruth Rendell.

"It's not that men aren't interested in relationships or family. But men are perhaps more inclined to write detective fiction where it's the procedure that counts - the nuts and bolts."

Strong women fascinate Clare. "A lot of the wrongdoers in my books are women.

"I am certainly quite intrigued by women who can be all-woman but still capable of quite masculine thoughts in terms of revenge or whatever motivation is needed to commit a serious crime."

Most people would consider Clare a strong woman - although mercifully free of any pathological tendencies. She sailed around the world as a yachtswoman, a feat she is surprisingly reluctant to dwell on.

Then she was struck down by ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. She went on to found Action For ME.

This week, a Government report officially categorised ME as a chronic and treatable condition, an outcome that Clare has fought for long and hard.

At one point, her illness left her too exhausted to do anything. She has recovered, although she is not taking her health for granted. "You always have to watch it. I live a normal life, for which I am extremely grateful."

But it is not the sailing or charitable work that gives Clare most satisfaction. "My writing is my greatest achievement," she says.

Updated: 14:03 Wednesday, January 16, 2002