Jilly Cooper, novelist: 'I adore Sheila Burnford, who in The Incredible Journey writes magically about dogs'

Cooper discusses her new novel, Beatrix Potter, and her rescue greyhound, Bluebell

Cooper says: 'I write in my late husband Leo's old office, which because the walls are lined with all the military history books he published, is known as The War Room' (Rex Features)

Where are you now and what can you see?

Walking my rescue greyhound, Bluebell. I can see across our beautiful valley to fields full of sheep and horses and where all the ivy-encased bare trees on the horizon look like a further carnival of the animals.

What are you currently reading?

Shamefully, only the manuscript of my very long new novel, trying to make the characters more real, knock out the repetitions and clichés, improve the whole thing...

Choose a favourite author and say why you admire her/him

I adore Sheila Burnford, who in The Incredible Journey writes magically about dogs and provides the most touching ending in literature.

Describe the room where you usually write

I write in my late husband Leo's old office, which because the walls are lined with all the military history books he published, is known as The War Room. His yellow rows of Wisden, the cricketers' Almanac, all the cups won by his authors, and Bluebell (who loved him) on the sofa all make me feel very close to him.

Which fictional character most resembles you?

[Beatrix Potter's] Tom Kitten clambering up the garden with all his buttons flying off because I still haven't shed the weight I put on at Christmas. Having been banished with his sisters to his mother Mrs Tabitha Twitchet's bedroom, they then noisily bounce around and spoil "the dignity and repose" of the tea party below.

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

Lady Annabel Goldsmith, because she is the kindest woman in the world, writes wonderfully funnily about her pack of dogs and is a marvellous Earth Mother to her glamorous family.

Jilly Cooper is judging the Scruffts Family Crossbreed Dog of the Year final at Crufts at the NEC, Birmingham, on 12 March