The Hungarian composer Franz Liszt was a celebrity of his day, a pianist virtuoso who captured hearts and minds wherever he played. He was, as I write in my novel Concerto, the biggest heartthrob of the nineteenth century. Whenever he appeared in public, his female admirers would fight for one of his gloves or his silk handkerchief.

Liszt was dashing, he was passionate and he was wildly talented – a lot like Umberto, the hero of Concerto. Umberto is a pianist composer, and at one time he had the world at his feet. But then he lost his eyesight in an accident, and since then he has been swallowed by the darkness. He returns to his family home on Lake Como, a villa with lovely vistas that he cannot see and fine pianos that he refuses to play.

But the lake is no place for despair! When Liszt came here in the 1830s, he was so struck by the serenity and beauty of the place that he wrote:

‘I do not know of any place which is more demonstrably blessed by heaven; I have never seen another one where the charms of a life of love can appear more natural.’

This is a setting to inspire the artistic soul. Here, at the Villa Melzi d’Eril in Bellagio, Liszt would walk for hours in the surrounding parkland, breathing in the atmosphere, letting his muse take in the stunning views and hear the music in the air.

Here on Lake Como, Liszt wrote, ‘immersed in this friendly nature, man breathes freely’; here, he feels ‘universal happiness’.

It was while at Villa di Melzi that Liszt began composing the Dante Sonata, based on Dante’s epic poem, the Divine Comedy. He was inspired by a statue there by the sculptor Giovanni Battista Comolli depicting Dante and his muse, Beatrice.

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During his life, Liszt wrote so many powerful and complex concertos, etudes and sonatas that he is remembered to this day as one of the most important pianist composers in history. My own favourite is his Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

Then I imagined him walking in those gardens not alone but with a guide. A woman who would coax him and challenge him. A woman who would inspire him, be his muse. Who would lead him back to the light, with love.

Liszt wrote:

‘When you write the story of two happy lovers, set it on the banks of Lake Como.’

So, dear readers, I did.