DISCOVER ISLE OF WONDERS

With spectacular chalk cliffs, sandy bays and a natural harbour fringed by precious heathlands, Dorset's Purbeck peninsula is lavishly gifted with natural beauty

- Claire Fuller

While researching where to set my second novel, I recently rediscovered the Isle of Purbeck. I had first visited as W a teenager, spending several summers staying with my best friend and her family in Swanage. They rented a chalet a little way inland and a beach hut just above the sandy bay, and Karen and I whiled away our time sunning ourselves, or when it rained, huddling in the hut hugging mugs of cocoa. Later, when my children were young, I brought them to the beaches near Studland.

Forty years on from my first visit, I was delighted to find that Swanage hadn't changed all that much: it's still a traditional English seaside town with pubs, fish and chip shops, and an amusement arcade, where Karen and I used to cruise the slot machines for dropped coins. But now, less interested in the bright lights' of Swanage and without young children in tow, I wanted to explore the interior of this beautiful peninsula.

Following the sandy paths that snake through Godlingston Heath, behind Studland Bay, I stumbled upon the Agglestone, although it's not something you can actually stumble upon, given it's a 400-tonne solitary sandstone boulder perched on its own little hillock overlooking the sea. It's said the devil threw it from the Isle of Wight, and it was originally anvil-shaped until a partial collapse in 1970; now it looks like a boxer with a flattened nose. From the Agglestone, it's a dazzling walk through the heather to the sea, stopping for a swim and a quick drink at the Bankes Arms, and up again, if you have the energy for it, to Old Harry Rocks. Here, looking out across the water, I knew the Isle of Purbeck was where I would set my second novel.

ALMOST ISLE