Local newspaper archives can provide a mine of background information to authors writing a period novel. The adverts are particularly useful, as Oxford-born author Bethan Roberts soon discovered when she began working on her second novel The Good Plain Cook.

Bethan had originally planned to set her novel in the 1950s, but when she discovered that the woman who was the inspiration for one of her main characters, US art collector Peggy Guggenhelm, had lived in Sussex during the 1930s, she moved time back a couple of decades.

She began working on 35mm microfilm copies of the Sussex newspapers dated 1936 that were stored in libraries, and found them fascinating. They certainly provided her with a wealth of information.

"The advertisements really helped me get a real feel for the period," she said. "It's amazing what those reels of microfilm contained, they helped with both the ingredients that a cook of that period would have been using, and the clothes she would have worn."

She then researched Peggy Guggenheim, though unfortunately not a great deal has been written about her, despite all she did for art and the colourful bohemian artists she moved among. Period cookery books played an important role in her research, too.

"The cookery books helped me understand what was considered good food then. I found one called The Sensible Cook, which was just the sort of cook book Kitty, the cook, would have used," she said. Having done her research, which took her at least a year, Bethan introduced her characters to each other to see how they would get on.

"I planned that bit: the meeting, the moment when Kitty the plain cook met Ellen Steinberg, the wealthy American champagne socialist living in Willow Cottage, Sussex, then I let them take over. I had no idea how they would get on, or how the novel would end. I firmly believe that plot comes from the characters," she explained, adding that place shaped the book, too.

"It's hard to imagine a story without a place. While studying for my MA in creative writing, it was pointed out to me that nothing happens nowhere. That's something you don't forget."

Bethan was motivated to write a novel by an MA in creative writing at the University of Chester in 2001, when she was 27. She already had an MA in English, but says no one who wants to write creatively should assume that a degree in English will help. In fact, she believes it hinders: "You read all these remarkable books, and they begin to make you wonder if you can ever write a word.

"The creative writing course was not competitive and comprised sessions and workshops where you would read the other students' work - a bit scary at first, as your words are exposed, but you soon get used to that, and the comments were always constructive," she said.

In her final year, Bethan was one of eight young writers who won a Jerwood/Arvon Young Writer's award which gave her a mentor for six months.

"They gave me Andrew Cowan, the novelist who wrote Pig and What I Know. He was wonderful. Every month, I sent him work and he would read it and come back with comments. He really helped me structure my work and get that first book finished. Then he recommended some agents."

When she learned that her first book had been accepted for publication, Bethan says she couldn't believe it. "Obviously mum and dad, who live in Abingdon, were absolutely thrilled.

"I had shaped Blotto, dog in the story, round my own miniature schnauzer called Lottie. Naturally, mum recognized that, but what was amazing about mum was the way she noticed lots of little things I'd pulled from life without realising it. She would say 'Oh, we had one of those' on noticing I'd mentioned something which echoed our family life, that I'd borrowed from our time together and the family home, without realising it."

As the title suggests, The Good Plain Cook finds herself thrust into the unconventional world of Ellen Steinberg, who believes in calling staff by their first names and sunbathing in the nude.

Steinberg lives with her daughter Geenie and gentleman friend Mr Crane, said to be a poet, though Kitty never sees him writing poetry. They are rich bohemians playing at being communists, who really don't know the first thing about how 'the people' actually live. They don't really want to find out either, though there's a delightful passage or two in the book when Steinberg suddenly announces that she'd like to learn to cook. Nothing, however, comes of this flush of enthusiasm for all things domestic - it's that kind of book.

The Good Plain Cook is published by Serpents Tail at £10.99.